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Brad Sigmon, the first U.S. inmate to be put to death by firing squad in 15 years, has been executed for the double murder of his ex-girlfriend’s parents.
The 67-year-old was escorted into South Carolina’s Broad River Correctional Institution execution chamber in Columbia shortly before 6 p.m., the time of his scheduled execution. He was wearing a black jumpsuit and black croc-like shoes.
Three state Department of Corrections employees, who volunteered to execute him, stood behind a wall with a rectangular opening 15 feet away. Once Sigmon was strapped into a chair with his ankles shackled and mouth covered, executioners put a hood over his face.
A bullseye marked the location of his heart.
His last statement was read to witnesses, who included three members of the victims’ family. It stated: “I want my closing statement to be one of love and a calling to my fellow Christians to help us end the death penalty. An eye for an eye was used as justification to the jury for seeking the death penalty. At that time, I was too ignorant to know how wrong that was.”
Sigmon’s statement continued with Bible verses and added: “Nowhere does God in the New Testament give man authority to kill another man.”
The warden then read the execution warrant. Sigmon took several deep breaths and the riflemen fired at 6:05 p.m. A doctor confirmed his death at 6:08 p.m and staff lowered the curtains.
Media witnesses observed a small red stain on the man’s chest, with a small piece of tissue exiting the wound, following the execution. Sigmon’s arm also tensed up after the shots were fired, one reporter said.
It was South Carolina’s first firing squad execution since the state passed a law allowing the method in 2021. Ronnie Gardner was the last person to be put to death in the U.S. by firing squad in June 2012 in Utah.
Sigmon chose to die by firing squad in February, weeks after the Corrections Department received his execution order. He had previously challenged officials in court over publicly available information regarding lethal injection executions.
After those efforts failed, he was forced to choose from the state’s three methods: lethal injection, electrocution and firing squad.
The state spent about $53,600 on supplies and materials to make renovations to its execution chamber that would accommodate firing squads. The construction and design work was done in-house, officials said in a news release.
The firing squad team has been formed since the new law’s creation and its members practice once a month.
Sigmon ended up on death row in 2002 for murdering his ex-girlfriend’s parents, Gladys and David Larke, in Greenville County. He confessed to the killings and told authorities he struck them in the head with a baseball bat nine times each.
Sigmon had been dating Rebecca Barbare for about three years when their relationship ended in 2001. He told a friend after smoking crack and drinking that he wanted to get revenge on the woman for “leaving him the way she did” and “tie her parents up,” according to court records.
While the woman took her children to school, he entered her parents’ home and beat them to death. Barbare’s father’s skull “was basically almost broken in two,” according to court transcripts.
Sigmon waited for Barbare to return to the home. When she did, he used her father’s gun to shove her into his car at gunpoint.
The woman managed to escape the vehicle, dodging shots fired in her direction. Sigmon fled from the state and was arrested at a campground in Gatlinburg, Tennessee following an 11-day manhunt. Police there extradited him to South Carolina, where a grand jury indicted him on two counts of murder and a first-degree burglary charge.
He told officers he had planned to kill both Barbare and himself.
In July, the state supreme court issued a ruling allowing executions to resume following a 13-year moratorium. Additionally, the court deemed firing squad executions a legal form of punishment, despite criticism it’s an inhumane form of justice.
Authorities have since carried out three lethal injection executions.
Neither the U.S. Supreme Court nor Governor Henry McMaster granted Sigmon a reprieve ahead of his death. His attorneys filed a writ of centori but it was denied hours before the execution. The court did not issue a statement on the matter.
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