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U.S.|U.S. Firing Squad Executions Are Rare, but Their History Is Long
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/21/us/firing-squad-executions-us.html
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During the Civil War, both sides used firing squads to kill deserting soldiers. Today, people on death row can choose to die that way in some states.
Published Feb. 21, 2025Updated March 7, 2025, 8:49 p.m. ET
On Friday, a man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 2001 was executed by firing squad in South Carolina, in the first such execution in the United States in 15 years.
It was also the first such execution in South Carolina history. But for those who have been sentenced to death in the state, the option is available. A lawyer for the man said his client preferred to be shot because he was concerned about the state’s lethal injection process.
Death by firing squad has a long history in the United States. In the popular imagination, it is associated with the Wild West or the Civil War, but in modern times the method of execution is rare. The last time an inmate was killed that way in the United States was in 2010, in Utah.
That could be changing, and not only in South Carolina.
What is happening in South Carolina?
The state passed a law in 2021 that made death by firing squad a legal option for people on death row. The legislation was prompted, in part, by a supply shortage: South Carolina was having trouble procuring the drugs for lethal injection, which remains the most widely used method in states with capital punishment.
The law was challenged but ultimately upheld by the State Supreme Court, which decided last year that death by electrocution, firing squad or lethal injection could not be considered cruel or unusual because inmates could select the option that they considered the least painful.
On Friday, Brad Sigmon, 67, was executed by firing squad at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, the state capital. A three-person team shot three bullets at a target placed over his heart.
