Death penalty: The convict wishes for shooting command

For the first time in 15 years, the execution of a prisoner is planned in the United States by a shooting squad. Brad Sigmon from Greenville in the state of South Carolina is to be shot by three volunteers from a few meters on Friday evening (local time). Previously, he was tied to the prison in Columbia, the capital of the state, on a chair, a black hood was put over his head and his heart is marked as a goal, as the Death Penalty Information Center announced.

Sigmon chose the shooting squad himself because he did not trust the fatal injection and fear that he would have to suffer too long, said his lawyer, according to the newspaper “Greenville News”. The Supreme Court of the state had rejected an application by the lawyers to postpone the execution on Tuesday.

Sigmon was guilty in 2001 that he had killed his ex-girlfriend’s parents in their house with a baseball strike. The two were in different rooms and he kept running back and forth to kill them, the broadcaster CBS reported. In addition, he had kidnapped his ex-girlfriend with the intention of also murdering her. However, she was able to escape.

According to the organization Death Penalty Information Center 2021, South Carolina had reintroduced the possibility of execution by a shooting squad, but so far nobody was executed in this way. At the time, this also happened in part, since the state could not get any medication for the fatal injections. In addition to these two types of direction, there is also the electric chair in South Carolina.

According to the non -profit organization, in addition to South Carolina, the states of Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah also allow executions through shooting commands. The last such execution took place in Utah in 2010.