Latest news with #BradSigmon
Daily Mail
04-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Experts reveal the most painful way to be executed
Though inmates on Death Row all have the same destination, some methods are more painful and torturous than others. Last year, 25 people - all men - across nine states were put to death as punishment for heinous crimes like murder. There are several execution methods performed in the US, but the vast majority, about 1,000 since the 1970s, have been through lethal injection, a three-drug concoction that renders the body unconscious and induces a heart attack. However, amid a series of botched executions with lethal injection that have led to painful deaths and even failed executions that required the inmate to undergo another round, some more archaic methods have gradually made their way back into the 27 states that allow the death penalty. Before lethal injection became the most common execution method, most offenders were killed by electric chair, which sends 2,000 volts of electricity through the nervous system and 'fries' the brain. Earlier this year, Alabama executed murderer Brad Sigmon via firing squad, a 400-year old technique in which corrections officers shoot one bullet into an inmate's chest. It was America's first firing squad execution in 15 years. has revealed the most brutal ways to be executed, as told by experts and witnesses. Firing Squad Last month, Brad Sigmon of South Carolina was tied down to an armless chair. A white target with a red bullseye was pinned to his chest. Guards held his head in place with straps across his chin and forehead and put a black hood over his head. Sandbags surrounded the chair to soak up his blood. In an enclosure about 20 feet away, three officers raised their rifles and each shot a bullet into Sigmon's chest at the same time. He was declared dead three minutes later. Sigmon, 67, was the first American in 15 years to be put to death via firing squad, a centuries old execution method that only recently regained traction. Just weeks after Sigmon's execution, 42-year-old Mikal Mahdi of South Carolina met the same fate after choosing firing squad over lethal injection or the electric chair. He spent about 45 seconds groaning in pain and was declared dead four minutes after the shots rang out. Firing squad executions in the US date back to 1608, and about 142 people have been put to death this way since then. In a modern-day firing squad execution, three officers stand about 15 feet away and fire through a small opening in the wall. The inmate's head is covered and they are restrained by their arms and legs. Despite the brutality of the method, some experts have suggested a firing squad execution may be one of the fastest ways to die. Dr James Williams, an emergency room physician in Texas and courtroom expert on firing squad executions, told The Marshall Project: 'There is a lot of evidence that the near-instant loss of blood pressure means no blood gets to the brainstem, and there is a rapid loss of consciousness. He compared it to a chokehold, which causes loss of consciousness in three to five seconds. However, a South Carolina court in 2022 said firing squad death could be considered 'torture' because it damages an inmate's heart and its surrounding bone and tissue. Experts testifying in the case said this would be extremely painful until the inmate falls unconscious. Firing squads are legal in Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah. Inmates can choose the methods in Utah and South Carolina, and in Mississippi it may be used if lethal injections are unavailable. A March 2025 bill made firing squad the main execution method in Idaho. Nitrogen gas Nitrogen gas execution, also called 'nitrogen hypoxia,' uses nitrogen gas to suffocate a person. Inmates are strapped to a gurney, unable to move any of their limbs, and are fitted with a mask and forced too breathe in pure nitrogen. Though nitrogen is naturally occurring and composes more than three-quarters of the air we breath, inhaling it at high concentrations leads to suffocation. While authorities in the four states where nitrogen hypoxia is legal - Alabama, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Louisiana - predict nitrogen hypoxia knocks an inmate unconscious and causes multi-organ failure in five to 15 minutes, critics say it causes excessive pain and humiliation. This could mean being left in a vegetative state or choking on one's own vomit. The World Society for the Protection of Animals said in its 2013 guidelines: 'Current evidence indicates this method is unacceptable because animals may experience distressing side effects before loss of consciousness.' The American Veterinary Medical Association made a similar conclusion in its 2020 guidance. And officials from the United Nations said it could breach human rights treaties that forbid 'torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.' Some critics say that the use of a one-size-fits-all mask means that it's not airtight. An inadequate seal could lead to oxygen leaking through the mask, which could lead to a prolonged and painful death. According to the theory, this could also lead to a stroke, seizure or the inmate being put into a vegetative state instead of dying. Even brain cells that are starved of oxygen for a few minutes may never recover, leaving the sufferer brain dead but still technically alive. Last year, Kenneth Smith of Alabama became the first American executed with nitrogen gas. It took 22 minutes for the 58-year-old to be pronounced dead, during which he thrashed against the gurney, convulsed and vomited into his mask. Since then, four more men have chosen nitrogen gas for their execution. Jessie Hoffman Jr of Louisiana became America's fifth inmate executed with nitrogen gas in March. It took 19 minutes for him to stop breathing. Witnesses reported he twitched and jerked his head with fists clenched. Prisoners can select this method of execution. In Mr Smith's case, he chose it after surviving a botched lethal injection. Lethal injection Lethal injection is the most common execution method in the US, with 1,377 injections administered since the 1970s. The method was first developed in 1977, though it would be five years before it would be used for the first time in Texas inmate Charles Brooks. Today, all 27 states that have the death penalty allow lethal injection. Lethal injection involves restraining the inmate to a gurney and placing heart monitors on their skin. Two needles, one of which is a backup, are inserted into the prisoner's veins, usually their arms. The inmate is given a trio of chemicals: the anesthetic midazolam to render them unconscious, the paralytic bromide to stop them from moving and potassium chloride to stop their heart. Dr Joel Zivot, an anesthesiologist and professor at Emory University in Atlanta, told CNN the 500 milligram dose of anesthetic likely triggers pulmonary edema, a condition in which fluid builds up in the lungs. If the inmate is not fully unconscious, pulmonary edema could make them feel as if they are drowning. However, Dr Ervin Ten, a retired anesthesiologist who has witnessed several executions, said if pulmonary edema starts after a patient becomes unconscious, it is likely 'not causing them discomfort.' Experts have also raised concerns that the paralytic would render an inmate unable to communicate distress if they have not properly been knocked unconscious. Dr Mark Health, an anesthesiology professor at Columbia University, testified in a lawsuit challenging Kentucky's execution protocol that some inmates have cried tears during the process. He said this could indicate severe pain or suffocation. Potassium chloride has also been shown to cause severe pain, which some experts comparing it to feeling like the arm is on fire. The whole process is meant to take about five minutes, but botched case can take up to two hours. The most recent lethal injection procedure was performed May 1, 2025, in Florida for Jeffrey Hutchinson, who was convicted of murdering 32-year-old single mother Renee Flaherty and her three children in 1998. The procedure took 15 minutes. According to the Associated Press, Hutchinson's legs shook and his body spasmed for several minutes before he went still and was declared dead. Glen Rogers, nicknamed the 'Casanova Killer,' will also be given a lethal injection in Florida two weeks later for the murder of five people in the 1990s. An additional eight lethal injections have been planned so far for 2025. Hanging Up until the 1890s, hanging was the most common method of execution in the US, particularly famous in the Wild West. But in 2025, it is only a legal execution method in Washington state, and this is only if lethal injection is either unavailable or ruled unconstitutional. The last hanging execution was carried out in 1996 in Delaware for Billy Bailey, who was convicted of murdering elderly couple Gilbert and Clara Lambertson. Hanging was the official method of execution in Delaware until 1986, and the gallows were disassembled entirely in 2003. The method typically involves an inmate being weighed the day before and authorities having to perform a rehearsal with a sandbag the same weight as the inmate. This is meant to determine how long the drop from the top of the gallows needs to be for a quick death. During the execution, the inmate's hands and feet are secured and they are blindfolded. Once the noose is placed around their neck, a trap door beneath them opens and the inmate falls through, breaking their neck. While hanging is meant to provide an instant death, small errors can make it torturous. If the rope is too short, for example, an inmate could be strangled instead of having their neck immediately broken. This could leave them gasping for air for up to 15 minutes. In fact, throughout the 1800s, inmates were known to hang by their broken necks for up to 30 minutes before finally succumbing to asphyxiation. Harold Hillman, an expert in executions at the University of Surrey, told NBC News: 'Hanging is a very cruel way of killing people. 'The fracture obstructs their breathing, and they are left gasping for breath.' If inmates fall too far, they may pick up so much speed that the noose decapitates them. This would be an instant death. Electric chair Around the time hanging became less common in the US, the electric chair came to take its place. In 1881, a dentist named Dr Albert Southwick suggested using electrocution to execute inmates after he watched an elderly drunk man 'painlessly' die from touching an electric generator. New York's Electrical Execution Law was passed eight years later and Edward David, an electrician at Auburn Prison, was commissioned to build the world's first electric chair. On August 6, 1890, 30-year-old William Kemmler of New York became the first American killed via electric chair. A year earlier he had been convicted of murdering his wife Matilda 'Tillie' Ziegler. However, the process was far from painless. The machine delivered 700 volts of electricity for only 17 seconds before the current failed. Even though witnesses reported smelling burned clothing and charred flesh, Kemmler was far from dead. Anything over 50 volts is considered potentially deadly. He underwent a second charge of 1,030 volts for two minutes. As he was confirmed dead, smoke wafted out of his head. Since 1890, 4,374 electric chair executions have been performed in the US, the only country to have ever used the method. The electric chair is no longer used as the sole execution method in any state, and the last one was in Tennessee in 2020. The method is legal in nine states, and in many cases, the inmate can ask for it in place of lethal injection. The method involves shaving and strapping a person to a chair with belts across their chest, groin, legs and arms. A metal skullcap-shaped electrode is attached to the scalp and forehead over a sponge moistened with saline. The inmate is then blindfolded and the executioner pulls a handle to deliver between 500 and 2,000 volts of electricity for around 30 seconds. The exact amount depends on weight and how much the inmate is able to survive. US Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, who opposed the death penalty, described electric chair executions in gruesome detail in 1986. He said: 'The prisoner's eyeballs sometimes pop out and rest on [his] cheeks. The prisoner often defecates, urinates, and vomits blood and drool. 'The body turns bright red as its temperature rises, and the prisoner's flesh swells and his skin stretches to the point of breaking. 'Sometimes the prisoner catches fire... Witnesses hear a loud and sustained sound like bacon frying, and the sickly sweet smell of burning flesh permeates the chamber.' This happens because the intense electric current causes all muscles in the body to lose control, including those in the bladder and bowels. The body also thrashes so hard that multiple bones break. The current also fries all nerves in the body, including those in the brain.
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Yahoo
I saw South Carolina use a firing squad to execute a man. I am sick with rage.
Just after 6 p.m. on March 7, the curtain hiding South Carolina's execution chamber jerks open. From my front-row seat, the room reveals itself in phases. First, two wardens. Next, the lethal injection gurney and ancient electric chair. Finally, its newest method of execution: a slanted chair in the far corner, facing a short black curtain in the right wall. The man tied to the chair is my client, Brad Sigmon. The cruelest aspect of executions is the restraints. I saw three men in Georgia tied down with arms outstretched and feet together, crucifixion-style. Brad is strapped across his ankles, lap and waist. His right arm has been wrenched straight back and tied to the chair. A white square with a red 'bullseye' is attached to his chest, where it rises and falls with his breathing. Brad is wearing a new black T-shirt and sweatpants. At our final visit that afternoon. Brad, who is 67, said they were the most comfortable clothes he'd worn in 23 years on death row. 'And it's true what they say,' he laughed. 'Black is slimming.' The purpose of the color occurred to me later: to hide his blood. Brad looked scared until he saw me and his spiritual advisor, who sits on my left. Now he smiles. He tries to face us, which is difficult because of the last restraint: a light-colored strap, like an Ace bandage, that secures his chin and jaw to the chair. He keeps mouthing words until we understand him. 'I'm okay. I love you. I'm okay.' Focused on Brad, I miss the wardens' cue. I have to read Brad's last words. I stand and cross to a microphone mounted on the wall. 'I want my closing statement to be one of love and a calling to my fellow Christians to help us end the death penalty,' I begin. Brad wrote this knowing it would be spoken only if his death was certain. He pleads now for his 28 friends still on death row. I recite the scriptures Brad selected and his closing prayer: 'We are now under God's grace and mercy.' Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store. When I sit back down, Brad is still smiling. I am sick with rage. South Carolina is my home. Before last fall, we'd had no executions for 13 years. Brad will be the fourth man killed in less than six months. The three before lingered on the gurney for 20 minutes. Brad was sentenced to death for the 2001 beating deaths of his ex-girlfriend's parents, David and Gladys Larke. Brad always acknowledged that he did it. We argued, unsuccessfully, that he deserved a reprieve because of his severe mental illness. To avoid the electric chair, Brad had to choose between lethal injection and the firing squad, which no state has used since 2010. I know because I am chief of the Capital Habeas Unit for the appellate jurisdiction of the Fourth Circuit, which includes South Carolina. I previously worked at the capital habeas unit in Georgia. I agreed to witness so that Brad would not be alone. But I cannot believe what we are about to see. I make myself smile. I hold Brad's eyes, my hand over my heart, until someone – I do not see who – pulls a black hood over his head. Ours are the last faces he sees. Opinion 'Oh thank you, God': Texas lawmakers halting Melissa Lucio's execution was the right call When I entered the witness room, I was given a plastic sauce cup that held two orange earplugs. As the black curtain opposite Brad rises – exposing three square ports – I jam them in my ears. I peer inside the ports. I cannot see even the tips of the rifles. I look back to Brad. His breathing has slowed. He is trying to still himself. The wait is agony. I do not want this to happen. But I do not want Brad enduring endless seconds in darkness and fear. A wound opens on his chest before the sound reaches us. The target is gone. Maybe the bullets vaporized it. Maybe they pushed it into the fist-sized hole streaming blood over Brad's stomach and into his lap. Blood flows from Brad's dying heart steadily, with occasional spills. Like someone tipped a glass behind his broken ribs, sloshing onto his black shirt, which conceals red very well. When the sound arrives, it is a chorus of explosions. Each of the three bullets makes its own noise, with its own echo, and cuts through the foam to ring in my ears. For a second, they stop my heart. Brad's body shudders. His arm launches forward, pulling on the restraints with all of his strength. For a second, I think he will break free and press his hands over the hole, holding and pushing himself back together. He heaves twice, his stomach rising. The blood still flows as his arm, trembling with the strain, starts to slacken and twitch. I have shifted forward in my seat, preparing to jump to my feet. Today, I memorized telephone numbers for the first time in decades; I could use the prison's phone if anything went wrong. Watching Brad's struggling arm, I know that everything has gone wrong. But no call can fix it. Opinion: I witnessed Alabama execute a man using nitrogen gas. It was horrific and cruel. A man enters the chamber with a stethoscope. I stare at the hole's tattered edges and the glistening, saturated front of Brad's shirt. His chest still moves as the doctor nears. The doctor leans in, the stethoscope poised. Then he straightens and steps back. He stands at ease but ready, a posture I recognize. He has to wait. But not for long. After a moment, when Brad seems still, he leans in again, darting the stethoscope from place to place. When he steps back again, he turns away and nods. The wardens return. The curtain races back across the window, hiding Brad's slumped and stained body. A voice tells us to leave. I am supposed to stand. I don't remember how. Bo King is chief of the Capital Habeas Unit for the Fourth Circuit, which is part of the Federal Public Defender's Office for the Western District of North Carolina. You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: I saw South Carolina shoot to death man convicted of murder | Opinion
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Yahoo
Curious Mississippi: Is execution by firing squad legal in MS? Has it ever been used here?
Editor's note: This is the latest edition of Curious Mississippi, a service to the readers of the Clarion Ledger. Other questions answered by Curious Mississippi have surrounded recycling, potholes, UMMC construction, cicadas and the international nature of the Jackson airport. Readers can submit questions by email to CuriousMississippi@ and editors will pick out the best and reporters will answer them in an upcoming edition. Mississippi is one of five states that still permit executions by firing squad, alongside Utah, Oklahoma, Idaho and South Carolina. However, a firing squad execution has never been conducted in Mississippi's long history with the death penalty. The only methods that have been used to execute prisoners are hangings, the electric chair, gas chamber and lethal injection, according to the Mississippi Department of Corrections website. MDOC is responsible for carrying out executions. Currently, there are 35 inmates on death row in Mississippi, according to an MDOC spokesperson. The Clarion Ledger attempted to find out MDOC's policy on executions by firing squad, but was told "due to pending litigation surrounding death row inmates, our office does not comment on execution methods/processes." In early March, South Carolina became the first state since 2010 to execute a death row inmate by firing squad, reigniting ethical debates over capital punishment. On March 7, Brad Sigmon, 67, was executed by three sharpshooters from the South Carolina Department of Corrections, who volunteered for the task, according to the Greenville News. Sigmon was convicted of the 2001 murders of his ex-girlfriend's parents, David and Gladys Larke, whom he beat to death with a baseball bat. He then kidnapped his ex-girlfriend, Rebecca Armstrong, but she managed to escape. During the execution, Sigmon was hooded and strapped to a metal chair with his shoulder facing the shooters. The chair was mounted on a platform in the corner of the execution chamber. At 6:05, the prison warden gave the order and the three-member firing squad shot with rifles simultaneously through a hole in the chamber wall. A doctor declared Simon dead three minutes later. Sigmon's execution marked the first time in South Carolina's history that a death row inmate was killed by firing squad. The last U.S. execution by firing squad occurred in Utah in 2010. While Mississippi has never executed an inmate by firing squad, the method remains legal in the state. It was as recently as 2017 when the Mississippi Legislature proposed a bill that included firing squad as one of four execution options. The bill was signed into law by then-Gov. Phil Bryant that summer. Jackson roads: Why are there so many potholes, dips and humps in MS roads? | Curious Mississippi answers The 2017 bill outlined a preferred order of execution methods for MDOC. The first option is lethal injection, which is the primary method for a majority of the 27 states where the death penalty is legal. If lethal injection wasn't possible, either due to a successful court challenge or lack of availability, MDOC should pursue execution via nitrogen hypoxia. If that wasn't an option, it moved to the electric chair. Firing squad would be the last resort. But in 2022, a new bill was filed removing the preferred order and giving MDOC more discretion in choosing execution methods. It lists all available execution methods — lethal injection, nitrogen hypoxia, electrocution and firing squad — together and adds the statement, "It is the policy of the State of Mississippi that intravenous injection of a substance or substances in a lethal quantity into the body shall be the preferred method of execution," according to previous Clarion Ledger reporting. The bill was signed into law by Republican Gov. Tate Reeves. Curious about Jackson's airport?: Why is the Jackson airport designated as 'international'? Curious Mississippi answers More Curious MS: Does Jackson have a recycling program? What about the state? Curious Mississippi answers The last lethal injection execution in Mississippi was in December 2022, when Thomas "Eddie" Loden, a white male, was put to death for the 2000 kidnapping, rape and murder of 16-year-old Leesa Marie Gray in Itawamba County. Loden repeatedly and unsuccessfully challenged the conviction in state and federal courts over the 20-plus years he was imprisoned on death row. According to July 2021 court papers, Loden's lethal injection consisted of a mixture of the sedative midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride. Vecuronium bromide paralyzes the muscles, potassium chloride stops the heart. Loden is one of 19 prisoners to be executed by lethal injection in the state, which was first introduced as Mississippi's preferred method in the 1980s, according to the MDOC website. In total, 16 white men and three Black men have been executed by lethal injection in the state. Tracy Alan Hansen, a white male, was the first death row inmate to be executed by lethal injection in July 2002. Hansen was convicted, along with his girlfriend, of the 1987 shooting murder of a Mississippi state trooper. His girlfriend, Anita Krecic, still sits in prison after being sentenced to life in prison in 1988. Before lethal injection, MDOC used the gas chamber for executions starting in 1954 when the chamber was installed in the Mississippi State Penitentiary. A total of 35 male inmates — 27 Black and eight white — were killed using the chamber over the course of 34 years. The first to be executed in the gas chamber was Gerald A. Gallego in 1955. Gallego was an escaped white convict from California who was convicted of the 1954 murder of a police officer outside Ocean Springs. The last to be executed in the gas chamber was Leo Edwards, a Black man who was convicted of the murder of a Jackson convenience store clerk in 1980. Edwards was executed in the gas chamber in 1989. What to do with the Jackson Zoo: Jackson Zoo's future: move, revamp, or close? Jackson mayoral candidates weigh in And prior to the gas chamber, "the old oak electric chair" was moved from county to county between 1940 and Feb. 5, 1952. A total of 75 prisoners were executed in this fashion with the first being Hilton Fortenberry. He was convicted of capital murder in Jefferson Davis County. The electric chair is now on display at the Mississippi Law Enforcement Training Academy in Pearl. Hanging was the primary form of execution in Mississippi until the introduction of the electric chair in 1940. This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: How does firing squad work? Is the death penalty method in Mississippi?
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Yahoo
The Way of the Gun
There is a contradiction deep within American capital punishment, driven by the stubborn fact of the Eighth Amendment: It's licit for the government to kill people—the torture of all tortures—but not to subject them to additional pain, a protection from lesser suffering in service of greater suffering. From this confusion arises the necessity of relatively painless executions. The same people who are holding death-row prisoners captive in claustrophobic cells are the ones responsible for ensuring their comfort en route to their destruction. With that mission in mind, states are now pillaging the past for an execution method that will satisfy legal challenges based on undue suffering while still accomplishing the penalty's aim. On Friday, South Carolina executed Brad Sigmon by firing squad; Sigmon had been convicted of the 2001 murder of his ex-girlfriend's parents. This marked the first use of a firing squad in 15 years, the previous instance having taken place in Utah in 2010. Peculiar and violent methods of execution seem to capture the public's imagination in a way that the death penalty itself does not: A person may support capital punishment in theory but balk at the means of actually achieving that end, which requires something more visceral than abstract assent. Accordingly, considerable media attention last week was given to the return of the firing squad—the case was thoroughly covered domestically, and even picked up by the BBC—but the next shooting execution won't garner half as much. Unless the culture changes to reject the death penalty, new techniques, or revived and refurbished old ones, will continue to come and go. During his execution, Sigmon was strapped into a gray chair in a steel basin with a target fixed over his chest and a hood covering his head. Witnesses watched through an observation window as the gunmen, hidden behind a wall with a cutout for rifle barrels, fired their weapons from 15 feet away and destroyed the target above Sigmon's heart. A doctor pronounced Sigmon dead at 6:08 p.m. [Elizabeth Bruenig: What it means to forgive the unforgivable] As in many executing states, Sigmon was permitted to choose among three execution methods to end his life: lethal injection, electrocution, and the firing squad. He elected to be shot, citing concerns about the past several lethal injections in South Carolina, which were characterized by significant mistakes: Of particular note, a prisoner executed last month was found to have been incorrectly dosed with lethal chemicals, and his lungs were determined upon autopsy to be 'massively swollen with blood and fluids,' according to a court filing by Sigmon's legal team. Firing-squad executions of civilians have been historically rare—the first took place in the American colonies in 1608, and since then, only 144 people have been executed by shooting. Drawing data-based conclusions about its merits relative to more widely used execution methods is therefore difficult. But Sigmon was probably right that the firing squad represents a faster and more reliable way to die than both the pseudoscientific methods produced in modernity (electrocution, gas, and lethal injection) and more antique methods such as hanging and old-world burning. In her chapter of the 2024 book The Elgar Companion to Capital Punishment and Society, the professor and legal scholar Deborah Denno points out that an electrocardiogram test conducted during a firing-squad execution in 1938 found that the prisoner's heart stopped within seconds of being shot, and that the prisoner was pronounced dead only two minutes later. Denno adds that in one of the most medically exhaustive analyses of various execution methods, the British scientist Harold Hillman 'concluded that execution by firing squad featured among the lowest levels of potential pain.' Nevertheless, firing-squad executions were eventually superseded by methods thought to be less bloody—namely lethal injection, which arrived in the late 1970s as a medicalized and respectable means of execution analogized by some to putting animals to sleep. But the putative progress of lethal injection belied its propensity for cruel and horrific botches. Consider the 2018 case of Doyle Hamm, whose attempted execution via lethal injection lasted for roughly three hours, during which he was pierced with needles at least 11 times in the legs, feet, and groin; one needle punctured his bladder. As a result, lethal injection has been the subject of fierce litigation, which has culminated in a convincing impeachment of the technique in the public's mind. That litigation has also led to a particular legal development involving challenges on the grounds of the executional method: A prisoner protesting a particular method must supply a readily available alternative, which motivates states to develop protocols for additional methods. Thus lethal injection itself may soon be superseded by firing squad or suffocation via nitrogen hypoxia. The churn of old methods and new will continue indefinitely as states fight to continue executions by whatever means necessary. Article originally published at The Atlantic
Yahoo
09-03-2025
- Yahoo
Buckets of chicken nixed as last meal for inmate Brad Sigmon: Attorney
(NewsNation) — The South Carolina inmate who died by the rare execution method of firing squad this week requested a last meal of KFC to share with his death row neighbors, but prison officials nixed the idea, his attorney says. Instead, convicted murderer Brad Sigmon was served his own meal of Southern comfort food, according to the South Carolina Department of Corrections. It consisted of four pieces of fried chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes with gravy, biscuits, cheesecake and sweet tea, officials said. If Sigmon had his way, he would have shared three buckets of the original recipe KFC with his fellow death row inmates, attorney Gerald 'Bo' Hunt said in a prepared statement. Is a firing squad execution more humane than lethal injection? 'That request was denied,' he said. His final meal was served Wednesday evening, two days before Sigmon's execution. In the interim, he ate cafeteria fare, a corrections department spokesperson said. She said she could not confirm the information about the request for buckets of chicken. On Friday evening, Sigmon was restrained in a chair with a hood over his head and a target on his heart. A trio of volunteer marksmen fired simultaneously at 6 p.m. Columbia, S.C., time, and the inmate was pronounced dead three minutes later, witnesses and officials said. The 67-year-old inmate was convicted of fatally beating David and Gladys Larke, the parents of his ex-girlfriend, in 2001. Sigmon kidnapped his ex-girlfriend at gunpoint with the intent of committing a murder-suicide, but she managed to escape. According to a last statement read at his execution, Sigmon called for an end to capital punishment, saying it's not supported by the New Testament. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
