Supreme Court Clears Way for Rare Execution by Firing Squad

The US Supreme Court cleared the way for South Carolina to carry out its first execution by firing squad in decades.

In a unanimous order Friday, the justices declined to halt Brad Keith Sigmon’s death sentence, which was set for 6 p.m.

The state is one of five that allow execution by firing squad, with only three such executions occurring nationwide since 1977, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Sigmon elected firing squad under the state’s so-called choice provisions, which require a death row inmate to chose between electrocution, lethal injection, and firing squad. The state supreme court has said that the choice provisions were intended to ensure that “a condemned inmate in South Carolina will never be subjected to execution by a method he contends is more inhumane than another method that is available.”

Sigmon was convicted in the 2001 bludgeoning death of his ex-girlfriend’s parents. He said he chose firing squad because the state didn’t provide him with enough information about its planned legal injection protocol to determine whether it would be the most humane option.

Citing what he calls a series of recent botched lethal injections by the state that took upwards of 20 minutes, Sigmon asked the justices to temporarily stay his execution.

The case is Sigmon v. South Carolina, U.S., No. 24A854, cert denied 3/7/25.