South Carolina inmate has chosen to die by firing squad. If carried out tomorrow, it will be the first in the state.
A South Carolina death row inmate has chosen to die by firing squad, a controversial and rarely used execution method that's legal but viewed as an inhumane form of justice by many Americans. Brad Sigmon, 67, is scheduled to be executed on March 7. He was convicted in 2001 of killing his ex-girlfriend's parents at their home. Prosecutors said Sigmon also held his ex-girlfriend at gunpoint and attempted to kidnap her, but she escaped. He shot at her as she ran but missed.
Sigmon's execution tomorrow will be South Carolina's first death by firing squad, which was legalized in the state in 2021.
His life may be spared if South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster reduces his sentence to life without parole. McMaster will make the decision moments before the execution is set to take place, the Associated Press reports. In the 49 years since the state reinstated the death penalty, no governor has granted clemency.
On Tuesday, the South Carolina Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Sigmon to delay the execution because he didn't know enough about the lethal injection option.
Since 1976, there have only been three executions by firing squad, and they all occurred in Utah. If carried out, Sigmon's execution will be the first time in over 15 years that a U.S. inmate will be shot to death as an execution method.
According to the Associated Press, Sigmon's attorney, Gerald King, said in a statement that his client acknowledges a firing squad execution will be a violent death, but he considers it to be the best option available.
Electrocution, King said, would 'burn and cook him alive," while choosing lethal injection would mean risking "the prolonged death suffered by all three of the men South Carolina has executed since September — three men Brad knew and cared about — who remained alive, strapped to a gurney, for more than 20 minutes."
An execution by firing squad, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, usually involves the prisoner bound in a chair in front of a wall.
The prisoner can speak any last and final words before a firing squad stands in an enclosure about 20 feet away from the prisoner. Sandbags are placed near the chair to keep bullets from ricocheting around the room.
In accordance with South Carolina's rules, three volunteer employees from the Department of Corrections are all armed with weapons loaded with live ammunition.
The prisoner typically dies as a result of blood loss caused by a rupture of the heart or a large blood vessel, the DPIC website states.
In the U.S., 34 people have been executed by firing squad, according to data from the DPIC. It's the only method of execution that has a 0% botched rate. Comparatively, death by lethal injection has the most botched execution rate at 7.12%.
The most recent death by firing squad was in 2010, when 49-year-old Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed in Salt Lake County, Utah. He was declared dead two minutes after he was shot.
The following five states have authorized execution by firing squad in certain cases:
Idaho: Lethal injection is the primary method of execution under state law, but if the director of the Idaho Department of Corrections determines it's unavailable, then a firing squad will be used.
Mississippi: A 2022 state law allows corrections officials to choose their preferred execution method — either lethal injection, electrocution, firing squad or nitrogen hypoxia.
Oklahoma: If other methods like lethal injection, nitrogen hypoxia or electrocution are determined to be unconstitutional or otherwise unavailable, then death by firing squad is an authorized execution method under state law.
South Carolina: State law says a prisoner can choose their method of execution: electrocution, firing squad or lethal injection.
Utah: If lethal injection drugs are unavailable, or if a court finds the use to be unconstitutional, then death by firing squad will be the method of execution, according to state law.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox Sports
an hour ago
- Fox Sports
Ex-Juventus president Andrea Agnelli seeks plea bargain deal in false accounting case
Associated Press ROME (AP) — Former Juventus president Andrea Agnelli has requested a plea bargain deal that would give him a 20-month sentence in a false accounting trial that contributed to his downfall at the record 36-time Serie A champion. Former Juventus vice president Pavel Nedved requested a deal of 14 months and former Juventus sporting director Fabio Paratici and chief legal officer Cesare Gabasio each requested 18 months. Prosecutors began investigating in 2021 whether Juventus, which is listed on the Milan stock exchange, cashed in on illegal commissions from transfer and loans of players. The case has also explored whether investors were misled with invoices being issued for non-existent transactions to demonstrate income that in turn could be deemed false accounting. A decision in the case, which was moved from Turin to Rome, is expected in September, a preliminary judge announced Friday. The case prompted Agnelli and Juventus' entire board of directors to resign in 2022. Agnelli was then given two separate bans by sports authorities, the last of which expires in October. Juventus was hit with a 10-point penalty in the 2022-23 season and then removed by UEFA from the Conference League for financial irregularities. If the plea bargains are accepted in September, it could be the final step in the false accounting legal cases at Juventus and set up Agnelli's possible return to soccer after his sports ban expires a month later. ___ AP soccer: in this topic
San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Bay Area day laborers say they live in fear of ICE raids: ‘We just come here to find work'
On the edge of the parking lot of a Home Depot in Alameda County this past week, a woman sold a warm cup of atole, a traditional masa-based drink from Mexico, to a man and his son. She had just returned to her post after a week of hiding at home with her 12-year-old son after hearing rumors of an ICE raid nearby. 'I would rather lose a day of work than risk something happening to me,' said the woman, who declined to share her name due to fear of immigration authorities. However, she said she could not afford to stay home any longer. Across from her small stand were nearly a dozen men grappling with the same dilemma — day laborers who are hired for all manner of jobs by customers looking for skilled help at a low price, but who are now fearful that the public way they solicit work might make them targets of President Donald Trump's mass deportation effort. Around the Bay Area, some immigrant advocates have reported that fewer day laborers are gathering at their usual spots outside home improvement stores, moving-truck rental shops and gas stations. But on this day in Alameda County, the men rushed toward vehicles that pulled up. They needed the work. 'We are a little scared because we don't come (to the U.S.) to rob, we come here to work, to give our children a better life,' said a Guatemalan man who also asked not to be identified by name. This month, as part of a broader series of raids in Los Angeles, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested more than 40 laborers in operations outside a Home Depot and at the workplace of a clothing manufacturer. Immigrant advocates worry that similar raids could occur in the Bay Area, though no actions have yet been reported. 'We feel like it's going to happen,' said Luis Valentan, the west coast regional director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. 'The administration is creating a really, really hostile environment and we don't see workers as we did before.' Trump administration officials have said undocumented workers take jobs that could go to Americans. But advocates say they mostly do jobs no one else wants — a sentiment echoed by Trump himself on social media. Moreover, some advocates say targeting day laborers would amount to racial profiling. Gabriela Galicia, executive director of Street Level Health Project, a nonprofit in Oakland that seeks to aid vulnerable immigrants including day laborers, said she and her staff have begun carrying around proof of citizenship because they fear being targeted by ICE for being Latino. 'People are scared,' Galicia said. 'They think that at any time they could be stopped.' Roberto Hernandez, the CEO of Cultura y Arte Nativa de las Americas, a nonprofit organization in San Francisco that promotes indigenous cultures and healing practices, said arresting day laborers is 'part of Trump's racist targeting of Latinos in this country' and goes against the president's rhetoric about focusing enforcement on criminals. 'A criminal is not going to be at Home Depot looking for work for the pay that a day laborer makes,' Hernandez said. In interviews, many immigrants who rely on day labor work — typically construction, painting, roofing and gardening — said they had no choice but to risk their safety to put food on the table. 'It's not fair,' said a Guatemalan man at the Alameda County Home Depot, who recounted arriving alone to the U.S. five years ago. ICE officials did not return a request for comment for this story. Home Depot said in a statement that the company is not informed of ICE enforcement. 'We aren't notified that ICE activities are going to happen, and in many cases, we don't know that arrests have taken place until after they're over,' the company said. ICE data shows that arrests in Northern California have increased roughly 70% this year, compared to the final six months of the Biden administration. While arrests of convicted criminals grew, arrests of people who were suspected only of immigration-related violations, or had pending charges, went up much faster. The Trump administration has said it intends to reach arrest quotas of 3,000 people per day. To achieve those goals, ICE has begun targeting immigrants who have been vetted and given a legal status to stay in the country, versus focusing on only those with criminal histories. It's not clear how many day laborers toil in California. A 2007 report by the California Economic Policy Center found there were at least 40,000, and that 80% were undocumented. Studies have shown that they are frequently exploited, with poor working conditions and stolen pay. These problems and others have prompted the creation of day labor centers run by nonprofit organizations in San Francisco, Oakland and elsewhere in the Bay Area, which work to protect day laborers, while helping them secure consistent jobs and wages. Though day laborers typically wait in parking lots until potential employers drive up offering work, San Francisco has a day labor center where people can make hires through a more formal process. Hernandez said he lives about a block away from an informal gathering spot for day laborers in the city's Mission District. In recent days, he said, he has rarely seen the usual throng of people waiting for work. Meanwhile, he's seen an uptick of people coming to the Mission Food Hub, a food bank. 'What I've consistently been hearing from a lot of them is that they don't want to be out on the street because of the fear of ICE, which then impacts your ability to pay your rent, put food on your table,' Hernandez said. 'That feeling scared, feeling depressed, feeling fearful — it's at an all-time high.' The mood in Oakland is similar, Galicia said her organization, which recently lost $400,000 in funding from the city due to budget woes, regularly checks on day laborers who gather at six locations. 'There is a lot of fear and panic even just seeing cars passing by that may look suspicious,' Galicia said. 'Whenever there are reports of ICE in the community, we see a decrease in the day laborer community.' On a recent day outside a Home Depot in Oakland's Fruitvale neighborhood, laborers said they hadn't seen any federal immigration officers. Some expressed concern that could change, but felt resigned. A day later, rumors circulated that federal agents had shown up at the store, but Galicia said that dispatchers from Alameda County's rapid response network, which responds to ICE operations, had not verified those sightings. And so the rhythm of the workers' lives continued. One man in Fruitvale, who also declined to share his name due to fear of being deported, said he used his earnings to support his wife and their two children, a 2-year-old and a 3-month-old. The couple, he said, left their home in Huehuetenango, Guatemala, five years ago seeking to escape poverty and crime. They crossed the border by foot, a journey of several days through the Sonoran desert. Now, he splits his time between different spots outside Home Depots — wherever he can land the best jobs. 'If they come, what can we do? There's nothing we can do,' he said. 'We just come here to find work.'
Fox Sports
6 hours ago
- Fox Sports
Diamondbacks' Ketel Marte reveals fan who brought him to tears shouted he messaged his late mother
Associated Press Arizona Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte said a fan in Chicago who brought him to tears during a game against the White Sox this week shouted that he messaged his late mother the previous night. The two-time All-Star revealed what was said during an interview with Spanish-language journalist Yancen Pujols. 'A fan was up on the dugout shouting things about my mother,' he said. "He was like, 'Last night I sent a message to your mother.'' Marte was seen in tears on the field after the 22-year-old spectator yelled a derogatory comment about Marte's late mother during a seventh-inning at-bat in Arizona's 4-1 win over Chicago on Tuesday night. Major League Baseball banned the fan indefinitely from all stadiums the following day. Marte's mother, Elpidia Valdez, died in a car accident in the Dominican Republic in 2017. He said he's used to being taunted, but had never been heckled about his mom. 'We have to do something about the fans; they're going too far,' he said. "They always shout things about me, but not about my mother. Everyone knows that my mother died in an accident. And nothing. We're praying for him, for the guy who shouted, and for his family, you know? May God protect him. May God protect him and cleanse his heart. They always shout things at me but I don't pay attention, but when they talk about my mother, it's a different story.' ___ AP MLB: recommended
