First US Firing Squad Execution Since 2010 Planned

A convicted murderer in South Carolina is slated to be the first prison inmate in the U.S. to die by firing squad since 2010.

Brad Sigmon, 67, is scheduled for execution Friday. He was convicted of the baseball bat beating deaths of the parents of his former girlfriend in 2001, reported South Carolina's WYFF TV.

The South Carolina Supreme Court rejected what will likely be Sigmon's final appeal Wednesday, the Associated Press reported.

The last firing squad execution in the U.S. was in 2010, The National Pulse reported. That was in Utah, one of only five states to use firing squads. Sigmon would be the first to be executed by firing squad in South Carolina.

WYFF reported that Sigmon's attorneys asked for a stay of the execution while Sigmon asked for information about lethal injection procedures as a potential alternative.

Since 1608, at least 144 civilian prisoners have been executed by shooting in America, nearly all in Utah. Only three have occurred since 1977, when the use of capital punishment resumed after a 10-year pause. The first of those, Gary Gilmore, caused a media sensation in part because he waived his appeals and volunteered to be executed. When asked for his last words, Gilmore replied, "Let's do it."

The most common form of execution of prisoners in the U.S. is lethal injection.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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