South Carolina plans to carry out a firing squad execution. Is it safe for witnesses?

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South Carolina plans to carry out a firing squad execution. Is it safe for witnesses?

NPR
By Chiara Eisner
March 4, 2025



South Carolina plans to execute a man by firing squad on March 7, the first such execution in the state and the first in the nation in 15 years. But firearms experts are questioning whether South Carolina's indoor execution setup is safe for the workers who will shoot the prisoner and the people who will watch.

Photos released by the South Carolina Department of Corrections show that the state intends to strap the prisoner, Brad Sigmon, to a metal seat in the same small, indoor brick death chamber where South Carolina has executed more than 40 other prisoners by electric chair and lethal injection since 1985.

Sigmon was sentenced to death in 2002 for killing his ex-girlfriend's parents with a baseball bat in their South Carolina home.

If the execution goes according to plan, at around 6 p.m. on Friday, in the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, Sigmon's head will be covered by a hood and a target will be placed over his heart. Three prison employees will be prepared to shoot Sigmon from a distance of about 15 feet, the state's overview of the firing squad execution protocol shows.

In Utah, the only state that has executed prisoners by firing squad in the past 50 years, only four of the five shooters fire a live round. One shooter fires a blank. South Carolina's squad will work differently: Each of the three guns will be loaded with ammunition.

(more)
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/04/nx-s1-5308218/south-carolina-firing-squad-execution-indoors

South Carolina is not playing games!

[DefiantMassRINO]

Firing squad?  Use a needle.  One less thing to be argued before the US Supreme Court.

[roamer_1]

Firing squad?  Use a needle.  One less thing to be argued before the US Supreme Court.

Screw that. Bullets are cheap. And more in line with the 'Let him who has not sinned cast the first stone' precept that is the hinge point of Common Law... No matter what the law says, There remains a final judgement in the trigger finger of six men. and in that, perhaps, the last modicum of mercy - be that how it may.

[MeganC]

I've always thought it would be helpful to hold a lottery to see who gets to be on the firing squad. Sell tickets at $100 each with the proceeds going to the victim's families.

[Sighlass]

Good grief, all the red tape they must go through just to poke a few holes in a murdering SOB.... and of course NPR has to gripe about everything (projectiles bouncing and hitting witnesses behind bullet proof glass and inhaling poisonous gun smoke)...

Just tie the scum up to a tree (why damage a metal chair) and make a good backstop.

Or course, the manual they linked only has a bunch of "refer to other manuals" for stuff I want to know, like what caliber and rifle they will be using....

[bigheadfred]

Idaho just passed firing squad as the primary form of execution to take effect on July 1. Idaho has 8 men and one woman on death row. Idaho hasn't executed anyone for 12 years.

[roamer_1]

If it comes to it, I would prefer the bullet.