South Carolina executed death row prisoner Brad Keith Sigmon by firing squad on March 7, 2025, carrying out the first firing-squad execution in the United States in nearly 15 years and the first in South Carolina's history.
Sigmon, 67, was pronounced dead at 6:08 p.m. at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, according to reporting from witnesses and the South Carolina Department of Corrections. He had selected the firing squad instead of electrocution or lethal injection, the methods available to him under state law.
The previous U.S. execution by firing squad was the execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner in Utah in June 2010. Utah had also carried out the other modern-era U.S. firing-squad executions before South Carolina began using the method.
Why Sigmon chose the firing squad
South Carolina law allows a person sentenced to death to choose a firing squad or lethal injection when lethal injection is available, with electrocution serving as the statutory default if the person does not make an election. The current rules are set out in Section 24-3-530 of the South Carolina Code.
Sigmon's attorney, Gerald "Bo" King, said his client chose the firing squad because of concerns about both electrocution and South Carolina's lethal-injection process. His lawyers had sought additional information about the state's pentobarbital supply and procedures, including information they argued was relevant to assessing how reliably the drug would work.
South Carolina officials maintained in court that the state's execution drug met the requirements for carrying out a lethal injection. The dispute took place against the backdrop of a 2023 state law that broadened confidentiality protections for people and entities involved in executions and for information concerning the procurement of execution drugs. The legislation is detailed in South Carolina Act 16 of 2023.
How the execution was carried out
Sigmon was seated and restrained in a metal chair inside South Carolina's death chamber. A target was positioned over his heart, while three members of the firing squad were located behind a wall with an opening facing the prisoner.
Witnesses viewed the execution through bullet-resistant glass. According to media witnesses, a hood was placed over Sigmon's head and the three members of the firing squad fired simultaneously. Witnesses reported that his arms became rigid and that movement in his chest was visible immediately after the shots.
The identities of the firing-squad members were not publicly disclosed. South Carolina's confidentiality law defines the "execution team" broadly and protects identifying information about people participating in the planning or administration of executions.
The crimes and death sentence
Sigmon was sentenced to death for the 2001 killings of David and Gladys Larke, the parents of his former girlfriend. Prosecutors said he beat the couple to death with a baseball bat at their Greenville County home and later attempted to abduct his former girlfriend.
His lawyers argued during years of litigation that mitigating evidence concerning Sigmon's background and mental condition should have received greater consideration. Those arguments did not overturn his convictions or death sentence.
Members of the Larke family maintained that Sigmon should be held accountable for the killings. Ricky Sims, the victims' grandson, told the Greenville News before the execution that his grandparents had been people who would do anything for their family.
Final appeals were rejected
Sigmon's attorneys pursued several legal challenges as the execution approached, including requests related to South Carolina's execution procedures and its lethal-injection protocol.
The U.S. Supreme Court received his application for a stay and petition for review during the final days before the execution. On March 7, the Court denied both the stay application and the petition for a writ of certiorari, allowing the execution to proceed.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster also declined Sigmon's request for clemency.
South Carolina's execution-method dispute
The firing squad became an execution option in South Carolina after lawmakers changed state law in 2021 amid difficulties obtaining lethal-injection drugs. Condemned prisoners challenged both firing squads and electrocution under the South Carolina Constitution.
A lower court found the two methods unconstitutional, but the South Carolina Supreme Court ultimately reversed that conclusion. In a July 31, 2024 decision, the state Supreme Court held that Section 24-3-530, which provides alternative execution methods, did not violate the South Carolina Constitution.
The ruling was divided, with members of the court disagreeing over how the state constitution's prohibition on cruel, corporal or unusual punishment applied to the methods. The decision therefore resolved the state constitutional challenge without ending the broader legal and ethical debate surrounding capital punishment.
Sigmon's final statement
In a final statement read by his lawyer, Sigmon appealed to fellow Christians to oppose capital punishment.
He said his message was intended to be "one of love and a calling to my fellow Christians to help us end the death penalty," and argued that the New Testament did not give people authority to kill another person.
His spiritual adviser, the Rev. Hillary Taylor, attended the execution. Three relatives of the victims also witnessed it. Before the execution, demonstrators gathered outside the prison, some carrying signs opposing capital punishment.
Why firing squads returned to the U.S. death-penalty debate
Firing squads have been used only rarely in the modern U.S. death-penalty era. Their reappearance has been tied partly to legal and practical problems surrounding lethal injection, including states' difficulties obtaining execution drugs and litigation over drug protocols.
South Carolina's legislature addressed that problem through both the 2021 law adding the firing squad as an alternative and the 2023 confidentiality law intended to protect participants and suppliers involved in executions.
At the time of Sigmon's execution, several other states also authorized firing squads under at least some circumstances, although actual use of the method remained uncommon.
What happened afterward
Sigmon's March 2025 execution was not the last time South Carolina used a firing squad. The state subsequently carried out additional executions using the method, making South Carolina a central part of the renewed national discussion over how states administer capital punishment.
The later executions did not change the historical significance of Sigmon's case: on March 7, 2025, he became the first person executed by firing squad in South Carolina and the first person put to death by that method anywhere in the United States since 2010.
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