South Carolina Death Row Inmate Chooses Firing Squad After Chilling Murder Confession
Disclaimer: The article has mentions of killing.
South Carolina death row inmate Stephen Bryant is now 44 years old. He is now about to face the same violence he inflicted on others, but this time, it’s state-sanctioned. Bryant was convicted of a string of murders in 2004 and has chosen to die by firing squad. We must keep in mind that this technique has only been put to use six times in the United States since 1976, and it was last used in South Carolina only a few months ago.
At 6 p.m. on November 14, Bryant will be put to death. He will be the third prisoner in South Carolina this year to choose the squad over the electric chair or a lethal injection. After a 13-year pause due to a shortage of lethal injection drugs, the state has resumed executions. Those who remember Bryant’s name are still haunted by his crimes. In October 2004, Bryant’s violent spree unfolded across South Carolina. He shot and killed three men — Cliff Gainey, Chris Burgess, and Willard “TJ” Tietjen. He left a trail of their dead bodies.
He was theatrically cruel. Inside Tietjen’s home, police discovered a blood-soaked message on the wall: “[Victim] 4 in 2 weeks. Catch me if u can.”
Bryant burned his victim’s eyes with cigarettes, surrounded them with lit candles, and used a blood-dipped potholder to write the taunting message for the police. When Tietjen’s daughter called her father’s phone, Stephen Bryant reportedly calmly told her he had killed him. Prosecutors said Bryant’s spree was random and sadistic. The sequence he followed was to pick up men, shoot them in the back while they relieved themselves, and leave their corpses along rural roads.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/south-carolina-death-row-inmate-chooses-firing-squad-after-chilling-murder-confession/ar-AA1PCAml?ocid=widgetonlockscreen&cvid=36e275b7bbc745ccb847f5ffa1534915&ei=170
