A man from South Carolina, convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a blunt object, has become the first death row inmate in the US to be executed by firing squad in 15 years.
Brad Sigmon was declared dead at 6.08pm by on-site medical staff after three prison guards who volunteered for the grisly task fired at his heart with rifles from 15ft away.
Sigmon, 67, was convicted of murdering David and Gladys Larke with a baseball bat in 2001 before kidnapping his ex-girlfriend at gunpoint. She managed to escape as he shot at her.
He had requested death by firing squad over the other two state-approved methods of execution: electric chair and lethal injection.
Sigmon’s last meal was four pieces of fried chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes with gravy, biscuits, cheesecake, and sweet tea, according to Daily Mail.
Now, it has been revealed that during his last words, Sigmon listed four Bible quotes that he said showed that ‘nowhere does God in the New Testament give man the authority to kill another man’.
‘I want my closing statement to be one of love and a calling to my fellow Christians to help us end the death penalty,’ he said through his attorney. ‘We are now under God’s grace and mercy.’
After the guards shot Sigmon, his arm started to tremble and strain ‘as if he was trying to break free from the restraints’, according to his lawyer Gerald ‘Bo’ King.
In a statement, he also added: ‘It is unfathomable that, in 2025, South Carolina would execute one of its citizens in this bloody spectacle.’
Since 1977 only three people had died by firing squad, all three of them in the state of Utah. The last to die had been Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010.
Ahead of Sigmon’s execution, anti-death penalty protesters held a rally outside the jail in the city of Columbia.
They held signs saying “all life is precious” and “thou shalt not kill”.
The state allows witnesses to observe the death from behind bulletproof glass, but the executioners are hidden from view to protect their identities.
South Carolina passed a law in 2023 requiring that the identities of the execution team members remain secret.
Sigmon received two death sentences for brutally murdering his ex-girlfriend’s parents, David Larke, 62, and Gladys Larke, 59, on April 27, 2001.
Having hatched a plan while high on crack cocaine the night prior, Sigmon showed up at the Larkes’ home with the intention of tying the couple up and kidnapping his ex Rebecca Armstrong at gunpoint.
Instead, Sigmon beat the Larkes to death with a baseball bat, hitting each of them nine times.
Sigmon then kidnapped Armstrong, but she managed to escape by jumping out of his moving car.
Sigmon confessed to the crime immediately.
He told jurors during his trial that he had no excuses for his behavior, but when Armstrong fell out of love with him something within him snapped.
‘Do I deserve to die? I probably do,’ he told jurors. ‘I don’t want to die. It would kill my mom, my brothers, and my sisters […] I just want to live for my family’s sake.’
