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 6:05 p.m. inside 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.
Brad Sigmon was convicted of beating to death his estranged girlfriend’s parents in Greenville County in 2001. (South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP)
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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 because of South Carolina’s policies surrounding secretive lethal injection details.
Gov. Henry McMaster denied clemency on Friday prior to the execution. (Joshua Boucher/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson signed off on the action, despite pleas from his lawyers to commute the death sentence to life in prison.
Sigmon’s attorneys argued he was a model prisoner and the killings occurred while he was struggling with severe mental illness.
He chose to die by firing squad, citing fears about the electric chair and lethal injection, according to his representation.
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The South Carolina Department of Corrections said the double murderer’s “specifically requested” last meal was served on Wednesday night and included: four pieces of fried chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes with gravy, biscuits, cheesecake and sweet tea.
However, his attorney, Gerald “Bo” King, said Sigmon requested three buckets of Original Recipe Kentucky Fried Chicken so “he could feed the men locked up with him,” but “that request was denied,” USA Today reported.
Sigmon’s last meal differed from what his attorney said he requested.
Sigmon admitted to killing victims Gladys Larke, 59, and David Larke, 62, on April 27, 2001, after they evicted him from a trailer they owned.
He then unsuccessfully kidnapped his ex-girlfriend, Rebecca Armstrong, who jumped out of his moving car as he shot at her, prosecutors said.
“My intention was to kill her and then myself,” Sigmon said in a confession typed out by a detective after his arrest. “That was my intention all along. If I couldn’t have her, I wasn’t going to let anybody else have her. And I knew it got to the point where I couldn’t have her.”
He was sentenced to death in 2002.
Firing squad graphic (AP)
Armstrong told USA Today this week Sigmon “should answer for what he’s done,” noting his actions ripped her family apart.
The murdered parents of five missed the births of multiple grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Armstrong, who reportedly doesn’t believe in the death penalty, said she would not attend the execution.
This photo provided by the South Carolina Department of Corrections shows the state’s death chamber in Columbia, S.C., including the electric chair, right, and a firing squad chair, left. (South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP)
Her son, Ricky Sims, told the Greenville News he would be there, wearing a pair of boots that were the last gift his grandparents ever gave him.
“He’s going to pay for what he’s done,” Sims told the outlet. “He took away two people who would have done anything for their family. They were the rock of our family … They didn’t deserve it.”
According to the Department of Corrections, witnesses to the execution included: Three members of the Larke family; a representative from the prosecuting solicitor’s office; a representative from the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office; Sigmon’s attorney; Sigmon’s spiritual advisor; and three members of the news media.
The chair in which John Albert Taylor was strapped into before being executed by a firing squad on Jan. 26, 1996, in Utah. (Lee Celano/Reuters)
In his last statement, which was read to witnesses by his attorney prior to his death, he spoke against the death penalty:
“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. Why? Because we no longer live under the Old Testament law but now live under the New Testament. Matthew 5:38-39 says “You have heard that it has been said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’ but I say unto you that you do not resist an evil person. Whosoever shall smite me on the right cheek, turn to him the other one as well.” Romans 6:14, “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are no longer under the law but under grace.” Nowhere does God in the New Testament give man the authority to kill another man. That is why the Bible is divided into the Old Testament and the New Testament. Remember the words of Jesus, John 7:19, “Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keep with the law.” We are now under God’s grace and mercy.”
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Executions in South Carolina resumed in September, when the state – once one of the leaders in executions – ended a 13-year halt in administering the death penalty.
It is one of just five states that authorize the use of firing squads in certain circumstances.
Only three inmates, all in Utah, have been killed by firing squad in the U.S. since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
Ronnie Gardner was the last prisoner to be executed by firing squad in 2010.
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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.
King did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
