The method,, which was commonly used during the Civil War in the 19th century, has not been used in the US for 15 years. Read More Breaking News
A convicted double murderer is due to be executed by firing squad in the first use of the method in the US in 15 years.
Brad Sigmon, 67, made the choice to be killed by bullets, saying he feared the alternatives of the electric chair and lethal injection would risk a slower and more torturous death.
He was convicted of beating to death his ex-girlfriend’s parents, William and Gladys Larke, with a baseball bat at their home in the town of Taylors, South Carolina, in 2001.
Three volunteer gunmen are due on Friday to fire live ammunition at Sigmon from 15 feet away, while he is strapped into a chair with a hood over his head and a target over his heart.
On Wednesday, he asked the US Supreme Court to stop his execution, arguing South Carolina’s refusal to share information about its lethal injection protocol violated his due-process rights.
His lawyer Bo King said the last three men to be executed in the state chose lethal injection, with the process lasting for about 20 minutes before they were dead.
He said Sigmon was left with “an impossible choice” and was forced “to decide whether to die by the firing squad, knowing that the bullets are going to break the bones in his chest and destroy his heart, or risk a 20-minute-long execution strapped to a gurney with your lungs filling with blood and fluid”.
Sigmon is scheduled to be executed at 6pm local time (11pm UK time) at the South Carolina department of corrections in Columbia.
There have only been three executions by firing squad in the US since 1976, all of which were in Utah – one of only five US states that still offers the method common in the 19th century during the Civil War.
Randy Gardner, whose brother Ronnie Lee Gardner was the last man to be killed by firing squad 15 years ago, is protesting against the execution.
“I think it’s horrendous. I think it’s very barbaric,” he said.
“I didn’t witness my brother’s execution, but I got to see his body after I’ve got the autopsy photos of what it looked like, and it’s just mutilated my brother’s body. I think it’s terrible.”
Mr Gardner said he opposed all methods of execution, adding: “To me it’s revenge.”
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Most US executions are carried out by lethal injection, which was introduced in the 1970s.
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Some states have found it difficult to obtain the drugs needed because of an EU ban on selling them, while executioners have sometimes struggled to find veins on prisoners’ bodies.
In January, the US Department of Justice cited autopsy reports, which indicated executed people suffered the painful sensation of drowning, and withdrew its lethal injection protocol for federal executions.
