United States: Death row inmate opts for firing squad, first in 15 years

The man was sentenced to death in 2022. A man sentenced to death in the US state of South Carolina has chosen to be executed by firing squad , a first in the country since 2010.

South Carolina authorities have set a Feb. 7-March 7 execution date for Brad Sigmon, 67, who is facing the death penalty for beating his ex-girlfriend's parents, David and Gladys Larke, to death with a baseball bat before attempting to kidnap her.

State law makes the electric chair the default method of execution, but gives the condemned the option of death by firing squad or lethal injection.

The three previous executions in South Carolina since September - after a hiatus of more than 13 years - all chose lethal injection. But Brad Sigmon opted for the firing squad, out of desperation, according to his lawyers.

One of them, Gerald King, denounced in a statement last week an "impossible choice" between "the archaic electric chair of South Carolina, which would burn him alive" and "equally monstrous alternatives."

This will be the fourth execution by firing squad in the United States in 65 years, he said. The last one, in Utah, was in 2010.

Five executions have been carried out in the United States since the beginning of the year, four by lethal injection and one by nitrogen inhalation in Alabama on February 6.

Six are scheduled for March alone, including Brad Sigmon's execution by firing squad and Jessie Hoffman's execution in Louisiana on March 18 by nitrogen inhalation.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 U.S. states. Six others (Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee) observe a moratorium on executions by governor's decision.

Another southern state, Louisiana, will resume executions after a 15-year hiatus, using nitrogen inhalation, which neighboring Alabama has been using for the first time since January 2024. This previously unprecedented and controversial method has been compared by UN experts to a form of "torture."