The South Carolina Supreme Court has dismissed the last likely appeal from Brad Sigmon, paving the way for his scheduled execution by firing squad on Friday. Sigmon and his legal team were seeking a delay to allow for a comprehensive court hearing on the lethal injection drugs used by South Carolina. Sigmon argued that the uncertainty surrounding these drugs forced him to opt for execution by firing squad. He expressed concern about the possibility of suffering a painful death by electrocution, rather than being fatally shot.
Sigmon’s legal representatives also contended that his original trial attorneys in 2002 inadequately defended him by failing to provide enough evidence of his mental health issues after he pled guilty. At 67, Sigmon was found guilty of murdering his ex-girlfriend’s parents in their Greenville County residence using a baseball bat. His plan was to abduct his ex-girlfriend, spend a weekend together, and then commit murder-suicide. However, his ex-girlfriend managed to escape during the kidnapping attempt.
In his post-arrest confession, Sigmon told authorities, “If I couldn’t have her, I wasn’t going to let anybody else have her. And I knew it got to the point where I couldn’t have her.” On Friday at 6 p.m., Sigmon will be seated in a chair in the execution chamber at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. Preparation will include placing a target over his heart and a hood over his head, with three shooters ready to fire live rounds from a distance of 15 feet (4.6 meters). Sigmon’s execution will be the first by firing squad in the United States in 15 years.
The defense argued in legal documents that Sigmon opted for a firing squad due to a lack of information, fearing a more torturous experience with lethal injection. Recent autopsies on two South Carolina inmates executed with a modified protocol of the drug pentobarbital revealed significant lung fluid accumulation, with medical testimony suggesting they might have endured respiratory distress. However, state attorneys counter that fluid accumulation is common in lethal injections and does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Witnesses, including the inmates’ respective lawyers, reportedly did not observe any signs of distress after about a minute of administering the lethal injection.
State prison administrators disclosed to the autopsist that both Marion Bowman and Richard Moore, executed this year, required twice the usual dosage of the lethal injection drug. In Moore’s case, two doses were administered 11 minutes apart. No exact timeline was available for Bowman, but a witness noted hearing voices ten minutes into the process.
Defense attorney Gerald “Bo” King condemned the execution process as “barbaric” and “cruel,” urging public outrage. Under South Carolina law, details about the execution procedure, including drug suppliers and personnel, remain confidential, leaving the new lethal injection protocol largely unknown.
Sigmon is also planning to petition Gov. Henry McMaster for clemency to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment. His legal team emphasized his exemplary behavior in prison as evidence of his rehabilitation following the killings committed during a period of acute mental illness. McMaster’s decision is expected just before the execution, though historically, no governor in South Carolina has overturned a death sentence in nearly half a century since the reinstatement of capital punishment.