For the first time in 15 years, an inmate convicted of a double homicide in South Carolina is executed by firing squad

Brad Sigmon, 67, was executed Friday in South Carolina by firing squad, a method not used in the United States for 15 years. Sigmon received the death penalty for murdering his ex-girlfriend's parents in 2001.

The execution occurred at 6:08 p.m. at the Broad River Correctional Institution. Three correctional system employees simultaneously fired shots into his chest from a distance of 15 feet. Sigmon was pinned in a chair, blindfolded, with a target on his chest. The shots were fired from behind a wall with holes designed for that purpose.

A brutal crime and a conviction with no successful appeals.

Sigmon ended up on death row in 2002 after confessing to murdering Gladys and David Larke, his ex-girlfriend's parents, by repeatedly beating them with a baseball bat. Court records indicate that he had consumed crack and alcohol before the crime and that he wanted to get revenge on the woman for ending the relationship.

After the double homicide, he waited for his ex-girlfriend and threatened her with a gun and forced her into a vehicle. She managed to escape and Sigmon fled the state. He was captured 11 days later in Tennessee and extradited to South Carolina, where he was convicted of two murders and first-degree robbery.

No option to avoid execution

Sigmon chose the firing squad in February from among the three options available in the state: lethal injection, electrocution and firing squad. His defense filed a last-minute appeal to stop the execution, but the U.S. Supreme Court rejected it hours before his death.

Governor Henry McMaster and Attorney General Alan Wilson backed the application of the penalty. The South Carolina Supreme Court had authorized the resumption of executions after 13 years of suspension and validated the use of the firing squad as a legal method. However, until Sigmon's execution, all recent convictions in the state had been carried out by lethal injection.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 25 executions were recorded in the United States in 2024. With Sigmon's death, the number in 2025 now stands at five.