Inmate executed by firing squad in US state of South Carolina

​​​​​​​By Darren Lyn

HOUSTON, United States (AA) - The US state of South Carolina executed a death row inmate by firing squad Friday, the first time that lethal method has been used in America in 15 years, according to media reports.

Brad Sigmon, 67, was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend's parents with a baseball bat in their South Carolina home in 2001. The killings were part of a botched plot to kidnap their daughter, with Sigmon telling police he intended to take her for a romantic weekend, then kill her and himself in a murder-suicide.

A judge ordered Sigmon to choose from three methods to die: lethal injection, electrocution or firing squad. Sigmon's attorney said his client chose death by firing squad because he believed the electric chair would "cook him alive" and he feared that a lethal injection would send a rush of fluid and blood into his lungs and drown him.

Sigmon is the first South Carolina inmate to be killed by firing squad in that state's history. It's also the first time that a US prisoner has been executed by that method in 15 years, since a death row inmate in Utah was executed by shooting in 2010.

The firing squad for Sigmon's execution was comprised of three volunteer prison employees who fired their rifles through openings in a wall 15 feet (4.6 meters) from where Sigmon sat in the death chamber wearing a black jumpsuit with a hood over his head and a white target with a red bullseye over his chest.

The prison employees all fired their weapons at the same time and were not visible to the nearly one dozen witnesses in a room separated from the chamber, according to reporters who witnessed the execution. They said Sigmon took heavy breaths during the two minutes that elapsed from when the hood was placed over his head to when the shots were fired. He was pronounced dead by a doctor a few minutes after the firing squad emptied their weapons.

Officials had suspended executions in South Carolina for 13 years, in part, because they were unable to obtain lethal injection drugs, but the state Supreme Court resumed the death penalty last July, carrying out three executions in six months, now four executions in eight.

Before halting executions temporarily, South Carolina had more than 60 people facing death sentences, but many of those inmates have died in prison or had their sentences converted to life terms.

The state still has 28 inmates on death row with one prisoner added to the list in the past decade.

After carrying out Sigmon's death by firing squad, the court will now allow an execution in the state every five weeks.