South Carolina man Brad Sigmon faces firing squad execution today, first such execution in 15 years
one South Carolina man faces execution through shooting squad Friday – The first such execution in the United States since 2010 and the fourth execution of a shooting squad since the death penalty was resumed 49 years ago.
When the clock hit 6 six times Friday night, Brad Sigmon, 67, plans to walk into the death chamber, be tied to a chair and put his target in his heart unless the governor or the U.S. Supreme Court awards him a last-minute felony. He could say the last words before he put a hood on his head and three fire bullets equipped with rifles, designed to strike the impact.
Sigmon admitted to killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat and kidnapped her after refusing to return to him, saying he chose to die for the bullet because he thought the other options offered by the state were worse.
South Carolina Department of Corrections/AP
His attorney said he didn’t want to pick a power chair, which would “cook him alive” or a fatal injection, with details kept secret in South Carolina. He also fears that five-leaf hairs injected into his veins would cause his lungs to pour in and flood him. Sigmon asked the U.S. Supreme Court to delay his execution Thursday because the state did not release enough information about the deadly injection of the drug.
The only option left for death row prisoners is Shooting teaman implementation method with a long and violent history in the United States and around the world. Death in hail has been used to punish rebellion and desert in the army, as border justice in the old American West, as a tool of terror and political oppression in the former Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.
Three previous U.S. shooting squad executions were held in Utah. Idaho,,,,, Oklahora and Mississippi CBS News’ Anna Schecter reported that the shooting squad was also legalized.
“He knew what the shooting squad would do to his body – he knew it would break his bones, he knew it would smash his organs,” said Sigmon’s attorney Gerald “Bo” King. “It’s a measure of the impossible choice here.”
In recent years, some death penalty supporters have begun to view shooting squads as a more humane option: if the shooter’s target is real, then death is almost instant, and Lethal injection It is necessary to inject an intravenous vein. electrocution It seems to be burning and disfigured. Prisoners have been seen twisting and struggling when the latest method Nitrogenis used to suffocate it because it is pushed away.
Ronnie Gardner He is the last prisoner to be fired by a squad in Utah in 2010. His brother disagrees with the more human approach.
“It would be terrible and savage,” said Randy Gardner, who said he did not witness his brother’s death, but carried the autopsy photos in the envelope. He drew several people to show to an Associated Press reporter that he would witness Friday’s execution.
this Sigmun dying indoor The death row prisoners in South Carolina are just steps away, and the prisoners have lived in the past 23 years.
South Carolina Department of Corrections through AP
When the curtain opens Friday night, Sigmon’s lawyers, victim’s family members and three news outlets will watch from behind the recently upgraded Grass to fight.
The shooter will be 15 feet away – from the rebound on the basketball court to the length of the free throw line.
The moment after the hood was placed on Sigmun’s head, three trained volunteers would shoot at the same time.
Everyone will be equipped with a .308 caliber, Winchester 110 tapped city ammunition is often used by police shooters. The bullet is designed to break the impact with hard things, such as prisoner’s chest bones, sending out fragments designed to destroy the heart and cause death almost immediately. Gardner said the ammunition would make Sigmun’s execution much worse than his brother’s execution.
Soon after, the doctor will confirm that Sigmun is dead. The process will take up to five minutes – a quarter of the time required for a lethal injection.
Why some states turn to shooting teams
South Carolina Turn to the shooting team As it strives to find alternative ways to execute condemned prisoners. By the beginning of the decade, the state’s deadly injections had disappeared, and no company sold more except anonymous, which was not allowed at the time. If the electric chair is the only way, the judge will not set the execution date. Thirteen years have passed The pileup began between executions and death row inmates.
A Democratic lawmaker in South Carolina suggested a shooting squad if the state wants to keep the death penalty. Supporters quote U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who Written in 2017 objection “Besides moments, shooting death may also be relatively painless.”
Sigmon was already close to death before. His execution date was set three times, but every time the state did not have a fatal injection of drugs, the judge stopped the death order because he could not choose this method.
If the U.S. Supreme Court does not intervene, Sigmon will have a last chance of survival: His lawyer asked Republican Gov. Henry McMaster to sentence his death sentence to death. They say Sigmon is a model prisoner trusted by the guards and atones every day for the killings he committed after surrendering to a serious mental illness.
His supporters say Sigmon will share his last meal with some inmates on the Death Cell and plans to donate the money in his commissary account.
The prison warden will call McMaster and the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office before the execution. If the attorney does not report any unsubscription appeals and the governor refuses leniency, Sigmon will be taken to the death chamber.
according to Death Penalty Information CenterSigmon is one of 32 inmates on death row in South Carolina. The center said that since 1976, the state has executed a total of 46 prisoners and has not been approved.
