A South Carolina man is set to become the first executed by firing squad in 15 years

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — When the timepiece strikes 6 Friday evening, a South Carolina antheral volition locomotion into the decease chamber, beryllium strapped into a seat and person a people placed implicit his heart. He whitethorn utter past words earlier a hood is placed implicit his head, a curtain shielding him from spectators is swept speech and 3 volunteers equipped with rifles simultaneously occurrence bullets designed to shatter connected interaction with his chest.

Unless the politician oregon the U.S. Supreme Court grants him a last-minute reprieve, Brad Sigmon, 67, volition beryllium the archetypal idiosyncratic to dice by firing squad successful the U.S. since 2010 — and conscionable the 4th since the death penalty resumed successful the U.S. 49 years ago.

Sigmon, who admitted to sidesplitting his ex-girlfriend's parents with a shot bat aft she refused to travel backmost to him, said helium chose to dice by bullets due to the fact that helium considered the other choices offered by the authorities to beryllium worse.

His lawyers said helium didn't privation to prime the electrical chair, which would “cook him alive,” oregon a lethal injection, whose details are kept secret successful South Carolina. He besides feared an injection of pentobarbital into his veins would nonstop a unreserved of fluid into his lungs and drown him. On Thursday, Sigmon asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hold his execution due to the fact that the authorities doesn't merchandise capable accusation astir the lethal injection drug.

The decease enactment inmate's lone remaining prime was a firing squad, an execution method with a long and convulsive history successful the U.S. and astir the world. Death successful a hail of bullets has been utilized to punish mutinies and desertion successful armies, arsenic frontier justness successful America's Old West and arsenic a instrumentality of panic and governmental repression successful the erstwhile Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.

In caller years, however, immoderate decease punishment proponents person started to spot the decease by bullets arsenic a much quality option: If the shooters' purpose is true, decease is astir instant, whereas lethal injections necessitate getting an IV successful a vein. Electrocution appears to pain and disfigure. And inmates person been seen to writhe and conflict erstwhile the latest method — nitrogen gas is utilized to suffocate them arsenic it is pushed done a mask.

Inside the execution chamber

The enclosure wrong which Sigmon volition dice is conscionable a abbreviated locomotion from South Carolina's decease row, wherever the captive has lived for the past 23 years.

When the curtain opens Friday evening, Sigmon's lawyer, household members of the victims and 3 members of the quality media volition ticker from down solid precocious upgraded to beryllium slug resistant.

The shooters volition beryllium 15 feet (4.6 meters) distant — the magnitude from the backboard to the free-throw enactment connected a hoops court.

Moments aft the hood is placed implicit Sigmon's head, 3 trained volunteers volition sprout astatine the aforesaid time.

Each volition beryllium equipped with .308-caliber Winchester 110-grain TAP Urban ammunition often utilized by constabulary marksmen. The slug is designed to shatter connected interaction with thing hard, similar an inmate's thorax bones, sending fragments meant to destruct the bosom and origin decease astir immediately.

A abbreviated clip later, a doc volition corroborate Sigmon is dead. At most, the process volition instrumentality 5 minutes — a 4th of the clip needed for a lethal injection.

Why does South Carolina person a firing squad?

South Carolina turned to the firing squad arsenic it struggled to find alternate methods to execute condemned inmates. By the opening of this decade, the state's proviso of lethal injection drugs was gone and nary institution would merchantability much but anonymously, which was not allowed astatine the time. Judges would not acceptable execution dates if the electrical seat was the lone method. Thirteen years elapsed betwixt executions, and cases of decease enactment inmates started to heap up.

A Democratic lawmaker suggested a firing squad if the authorities was going to support superior punishment. Supporters cited U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who wrote successful a 2017 dissent that “in summation to being adjacent instant, decease by shooting whitethorn besides beryllium comparatively painless."

Sigmon has been adjacent to decease before. He had execution dates acceptable 3 times, but each clip it was erstwhile the authorities didn't person lethal injection drugs and judges halted his decease warrant due to the fact that helium couldn't take that method.

What transgression did Sigmon commit?

Sigmon bushed to decease his ex-girlfriend's parents with a shot bat due to the fact that helium was aggravated that they had had him evicted from a trailer they owned. They were successful abstracted rooms of their Greenville County location and Sigmon went backmost and distant attacking them until they were dead, investigators said.

Sigmon past kidnapped his ex-girlfriend astatine gunpoint, but she escaped from his car. He changeable astatine her arsenic she ran, but missed, prosecutors said.

“My volition was to termination her and past myself," Sigmon said successful a confession typed retired by a detective aft his arrest. “That was my volition each along. If I couldn’t person her, I wasn’t going to fto anybody other person her. And I knew it got to the constituent wherever I couldn’t person her."

One past accidental to live

If the U.S. Supreme Court doesn't intervene, Sigmon has 1 past accidental astatine survival. His lawyers asked Republican Gov. Henry McMaster to commute his decease condemnation to beingness successful prison. They said Sigmon is simply a exemplary captive trusted by guards and works each time to atone for the killings helium committed aft succumbing to terrible intelligence illness.

Sigmon volition stock his last repast with immoderate chap prisoners connected decease enactment and plans to springiness distant the wealth successful his commissary accounts, his supporters said.

The situation warden volition beryllium connected a telephone with McMaster and the South Carolina Attorney General's Office conscionable earlier the execution starts. If the lawyers study nary outstanding appeals and the politician refuses clemency, Sigmon volition beryllium brought into the decease chamber.

No South Carolina politician has granted clemency to the 46 men killed by the authorities since the decease punishment was reinstated successful 1976.

Two much inmates are retired of appeals and the authorities Supreme Court has been issuing decease warrants each 5 weeks. Those men volition besides get to take betwixt lethal injection, firing squad oregon the electrical chair.