by David Kim

Brad Sigmon, a 67-year-old convicted double murderer, became the first prisoner in the United States to be executed by firing squad in 15 years on Friday, March 7, 2025. Sigmon, who was sentenced to death for the 2001 killings of his ex-girlfriend’s parents, chose the method over lethal injection or the electric chair, citing concerns about the potential for prolonged suffering.

At 6:05 p.m., three state corrections volunteers armed with rifles fired simultaneously at a target placed over Sigmon’s heart. He was pronounced dead at 6:08 p.m. in the death chamber at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina.

In his final statement, Sigmon, a devout Christian, quoted four Bible passages, asserting that “nowhere does God in the New Testament give man the authority to kill another man.” His attorney read the statement aloud, in which Sigmon called for an end to the death penalty, declaring, “We are not under God’s grace and mercy.”

Sigmon was convicted in 2002 for bludgeoning David and Gladys Larke, both in their late 50s, to death with a baseball bat. The attack occurred after he forced his way into their Greenville County home in a fit of rage over his breakup with their daughter, Rebecca Barbare. She was also kidnapped at gunpoint but managed to escape, surviving a gunshot wound.

South Carolina law requires prisoners to select their method of execution, with the electric chair as the default option. Sigmon’s attorney argued that his client was not adequately informed about lethal injection when making his choice. A last-minute appeal to halt the execution was rejected by the South Carolina Supreme Court earlier Friday.

The execution drew a small crowd of protesters outside the prison, while 12 witnesses, including family members of the victims, observed the process from behind bullet-resistant glass.

Sigmon’s death marks the fourth firing squad execution in the U.S. since 1976 and the first in South Carolina. He is also the oldest of the 46 prisoners executed in the state since the death penalty was reinstated.

His final meal included fried chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, biscuits, cheesecake, and sweet tea. A request to share three buckets of KFC with fellow prisoners was denied.

Republican Gov. Henry McMaster declined to commute Sigmon’s sentence, continuing a 49-year trend in South Carolina of no governor granting clemency in a capital punishment case.

Sigmon’s execution reignites debate over the morality and methods of the death penalty, a topic he addressed in his final moments. 

Source: nypost.com

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