US carried out firing squad execution for the first time in 15 years in South Carolina

Brad Sigmon, a convicted double murderer, has been executed by firing squad. This is the first such execution in the United States since 2010, according to the South Carolina Department of Corrections.

Sigmon was convicted of the bludgeoning deaths of his ex-girlfriend’s parents; Gadys Lark and David Lark. He killed them with a baseball bat in their Greenville County home in 2001 in a plot to kidnap their daughter.

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After their murders, Sigmon kidnapped his ex-girlfriend at gunpoint, but she managed to escape. He told police he planned to take her for a romantic weekend, then kill her and himself but he was unsuccessful.

Brad chose the firing squad over the two other state-approved methods of execution, lethal injection or the electric chair. According to his lawyers, he chose the firing squad because the electric chair would “cook him alive.”

Like all death row inmates, Sigmon was allowed to choose his final meal. He requested three buckets of KFC chicken, green beans, biscuits, cheesecake & sweet tea.

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Strapped to a metal chair, he had a target placed over his heart and a hood over his head. A three-person rifle squad, positioned behind a wall, aimed and executed him from 15 feet away. He is the first person in South Carolina history to be executed by firing squad.

He was pronounced dead by a physician at 6:08 p.m. ET, on March 7, 2025. In a final statement shared by his lawyer, Sigmon said, “I want my closing statement to be one of love and a calling to my fellow Christians to help us end the death penalty.”

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