This is a first in the United States since 2010. A sentenced to capital punishment in the state of South Carolina, Brad Sigmon, 67, was executed by execution peloton, Friday, March 7.
He had been sentenced in 2002 for having beaten to death with baseball bats David and Gladys Larke, the parents of his former girlfriend, before trying to remove it.
“The execution was carried out at 6:05 p.m. (0.05 a.m. Saturday, French time) by a peloton of three people and he was declared dead by a doctor at 6:08 p.m. (0:08 a.m.) “”announced the spokesperson for the state prison administration, Chrysti Shain.
This is the sixth execution in the United States in 2025, all the others were carried out by lethal injection, except one by inhalation of nitrogen in Alabama, which inaugurated, in January 2024, this previously unprecedented and controversial method, compared by UN experts to a form of ” torture “. Lousiane, another state in the south of the country, will resume executions on March 18, after an interruption of fifteen years, also using nitrogen inhalation.
“Horrible and violent” death
The authorities of South Carolina set, a month ago, the date of execution of Brad Sigmon. The laws of the State make the electric chair the default mode, but grant the condemned the possibility of choosing a death by execution peloton or by lethal injection. The previous three convicted people executed in South Carolina since September 2024 – after an interruption of over thirteen years – have all chosen the lethal injection. But Brad Sigmon opted for the execution peloton, in despair, according to his lawyers.
“Brad’s death (Sigmon) was horrible and violent. He chose the execution peloton knowing that three bullets would break his bones and destroy his heart ”reacted one of them in a press release, Gerald King. “But it was the only choice he had, after the three executions in the state by lethal injection made prolonged agonies undergoing and potentially close to torture to men he loved as brothers”he added.
“A declaration of love”
The last execution of this type in the United States, in Utah, dates back to 2010. Brad Sigmon was attached by the hands and feet to a chair, a hood on the head, a target drawn on a paper or a piece of fabric being fixed on his chest, said the journalists who attended the execution at a press conference.
“The bullets were fired at 6:05 pm. I had the impression that they were all fired at the same time, it was one sound”said Anna Dobbins, from the local Wyff News 4 channel. “It happened very quickly. I saw blood spurting when the balls entered his body ”she said.
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Brad Sigmon’s latest words were read by his lawyer Gerald King. “I want my last declaration to be a declaration of love and a call to my Christian co -religionists to help us end the death penalty”he said.
Six executions are planned in the United States for the month of March alone. The death penalty was abolished in 23 of the 50 American states. Six others (Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee) observe a moratorium of executions by decision of the governor.
