A South Carolina man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat in 2001 was executed by firing squad early Friday evening – a method used for the first time in 15 years in the U.S.
Brad Sigmon, 67, was pronounced dead at 6:08 p.m. after being shot by three volunteer prison employees at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, according to the Associated Press.
Sigmon, who previously admitted to killing the couple because his ex-girlfriend refused to get back to him, was blindfolded and strapped to a chair with a target on his chest.
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The executioners, armed with rifles about 15 feet away, fired bullets into his heart.
The volunteers all fired at the same time through openings in a wall, according to the AP. A dozen witnesses, seated in a room separated from the chamber by bullet-resistant glass, could not see the executioners.
Just a few hours before the death sentence, the U.S. Supreme Court denied an emergency motion to suspend the execution.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson signed off on the action.
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Executions in South Carolina resumed in September, when the state – once one of the busiest for executions – ended a 13-year pause in carrying out the death penalty.
Twenty-five executions were carried out in the U.S. last year. Five have already been carried out in 2025, per the Death Penalty Information Center.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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