US man killed by firing squad in first such execution in 15 years

A South Carolina man convicted of murder was executed by firing squad Friday, the first US prisoner to die by that method in 15 years.

Brad Sigmon, 67, was pronounced dead at 6.08pm after being shot by three volunteer prison employees wielding rifles loaded with live ammunition.

Sigmon killed his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat in their Greenville County home in 2001 in a botched plot to kidnap their daughter. He told police he planned to take her for a romantic weekend, then kill her and himself.

Sigmon’s lawyers said he chose the firing squad because the electric chair would “cook him alive,” and he feared that a lethal injection of pentobarbital into his veins would send a rush of fluid and blood into his lungs and drown him.

The details of South Carolina’s lethal injection method are kept secret, and Sigmon unsuccessfully asked the state Supreme Court on Thursday to pause his execution because of that.

On Friday, Sigmon wore a black jumpsuit with a hood over his head and a white target with a red bullseye over his chest.