S.C. carries out first execution by firing squad in state history
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - A man who had been on South Carolina’s death row for more than 20 years was executed on Friday night.
Brad Sigmon, 67, elected to die by firing squad, citing concerns about the suffering he would endure if he picked lethal injection.
Sigmon’s last meal was served on Wednesday evening: four pieces of fried chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes with gravy, biscuits, cheesecake, and sweet tea.
Jeffrey Collins of the Associated Press, one of the media witnesses to the execution, said the curtain in the death chamber was lifted around 6:01 p.m. on Friday night, allowing witnesses to see Sigmon strapped into a chair. He had a small, white, rectangular target over his chest with a red bullseye on it.
Sigmon’s attorney read his final statement:
A prison employee placed a hood over Sigmon’s head. At 6:05 p.m., three volunteer Department of Corrections employees behind a wall fired rifles at the target on Sigmon’s chest. All three guns were loaded with live ammunition, .308 caliber Winchester 110-grain TAP Urban rounds, which are designed to break up on impact.
All three shots were fired simultaneously. Collins said witnesses flinched due to the noise.
Sigmon was pronounced dead at 6:08 p.m.
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He is the first person in South Carolina history to be executed by firing squad and the first firing squad execution in the U.S. in 15 years.
On Friday afternoon, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request to delay Sigmon’s execution.
Governor Henry McMaster also denied clemency for Sigmon. He announced the decision shortly after 6 p.m., saying he carefully considered the application and reviewed judicial decisions in the case.
Protestors were gathered outside the South Carolina Department of Corrections to oppose the death penalty. Multiple people, including the brother of the last man in the U.S. to die by firing squad, spoke out against the execution method.
Local Irish-American hero honored during wreath-laying ceremony
A well-respected Irish-American leader was honored Friday in a wreath-laying ceremony. Dennis Cahill lost his life heroically, rescuing a young girl from the Augusta Canal in 1902.
2001 DOUBLE MURDER
Sigmon was sentenced to death in 2002 for beating his ex-girlfriend’s parents, David and Gladys Larke, to death with a baseball bat in their Greenville County home.
The Larkes’ daughter had recently broken up with Sigmon, and he planned to kill her too. He abducted her at gunpoint and shot her as she jumped from the car to escape. Thankfully, she survived her injuries.
After stealing an RV, Sigmon went on the run for ten days. He was caught at a campground in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
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