A convicted double murderer in South Carolina became the first American death row inmate to die by firing squad in 15 years — and ironically preached that the Bible doesn’t condone the killing of another man in his final moments.
Brad Sigmon, 67, was pronounced dead at 6:08 p.m. after three state corrections department volunteers armed with rifles lined up behind a wall about 15 feet away and fired off shots at a target on the hooded killer’s heart at 6:05 p.m.
For his last words, Sigmon cited four Bible quotes that he said revealed that “nowhere does God in the New Testament give man the authority to kill another man” before he was put to death.
“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 in a statement, which his attorney read aloud.
“An eye for an eye was used as justification to the jury for seeking the death penalty. At that time, I was too ignorant to know how wrong that was. Why? Because we no longer live under the Old Testament law but now live under the New Testament.”
He concluded his remarks saying, “We are not under God’s grace and mercy.”
Sigmon, who was convicted in 2002 for bludgeoning his ex-girlfriend’s parents, David and Gladys Larke, to death with a baseball bat a year earlier, personally chose the violent punishment over the electric chair or lethal injection.
He became the fourth inmate in the US to be put to death by the unusual method since 1976, and the first-ever in the Palmetto State.
Sigmon wore a black jumpsuit and was hooded as he was strapped into a metal chair that sat on top of a catch basin inside the death chamber at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia.
A white target with a red bullseye was placed over his chest as the trained volunteers simultaneously opened fire through openings in the wall using .308-caliber Winchester 100-grain TAP Urban bullets.
Each shooter fired one round at the same time, and the bullets blasted the target off Sigmon’s chest. He briefly tensed when he was struck and appeared to take several heavy breaths during the two-minute process. Blood and small amounts of tissue could be seen through his wounds as he took his final breaths.
A doctor checked on Sigmon about a minute later and examined him for about 90 seconds before declaring him dead.
The firing squad was not visible to the roughly 12 witnesses who were startled by the gunfire as they were seated in a room separated from the chamber by bullet-resistant glass.
Three of the victim’s family members, Sigmon’s attorney and spiritual advisor, a representative from the prosecuting solicitor’s office and the Greenville Sheriff’s Department and three reporters were among those who witnessed Sigmon’s final moments.
A crowd of protesters gathered outside the prison ahead of his execution.
Sigmon chose the firing squad, believing that he’d die a torturous death from lethal injections. He also expressed concern that the electric chair would “burn and cook him alive,” his attorney said.
He was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend Rebecca Barbare’s parents after he forced his way into their home in Greenville County and beat them to death with a baseball bat on April 27, 2001.
David, 62, and Gladys, 59, were in separate rooms as Sigmon went back and forth bashing them with the bat.
The husband’s “skull was basically broken in two,” the court heard during his trial.
He then kidnapped his Barbare at gunpoint, but she escaped from his car — shooting her as she ran but she survived, according to prosecutors.
Sigmond had been smoking crack cocaine and drinking on the night of the slayings when he told a friend he would “get Becky for leaving him the way she did,” and “tie her parents up,” according to court documents.
In a confession, Sigmon said, “I couldn’t have her, I wasn’t going to let anybody else have her.”
He planned to kill both Barbare and then himself, he later testified to officers.
The convicted killer was on the run for 11 days before police caught up with him in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
He was sentenced to death in 2002.
Sigmon has since claimed he was forced to choose his violent death, arguing he wasn’t given information about the lethal injection method when he decided how to end his life.
South Carolina law requires death row inmates to select their own method of execution — lethal injection, electric chair or firing squad. If no choice is made, the default option is the electric chair.
His attorney made a last-minute appeal to save his life, which was rejected earlier Friday by South Carolina’s Supreme Court.
Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, who had the option to commute Sigmon’s death sentence moments before the execution began, opted to allow the process to proceed.
No South Carolina governor has granted clemency in the 49 years since the death penalty restarted.
Sigmon’s last meal included four pieces of fried chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes with gravy, biscuits, cheesecake and sweet tea, according to SCDOC.
He had requested three buckets of KFC to share with his death row buddies, but that was denied, his lawyer, Gerald “Bo” King, told USA Today.
Sigmon is the oldest of the 46 South Carolina inmates who have been executed since the death penalty was restarted in the US in 1976.
The ugly dude murdered his girl friends parents with a baseball bat. He deserves death by hanging or firing squad, then he has to face the Lord Father, next. Let the Father be the final judge.