Murderer chooses archaic execution methodology for baseball bat killing of ex’s mother and father
Only three other inmates have been executed using the brutal method the double killer has chosen in the past almost 50 years with the last of them opting for it back in 2010
A man on death row has chosen a brutal and archaic form of execution as he remains just days away from death. Brad Sigmon, 67, is scheduled to die on March 7 in the United States.
The American has been on death row for the brutal baseball bat beating deaths of his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 2001. Now the inmate has chosen the firing squad method instead of facing lethal injection or the electric chair.
It comes after concerns over medicines used in the lethal injection with three men executed in South Carolina since September. All of the men remained alive for more than 20 minutes.
Sigmon will be only the fourth inmate executed by firing squad in the US since 1976. All three previous inmates were executed in Utah with the most recent taking place in 2010.
The killer’s attorney Gerald ‘Bo’ King said that Sigmon wanted to avoid the electric chair because it would “burn and cook him alive”. He also spoke of widespread issues with the lethal injection, calling it “just as monstrous”.
Sigmon was convicted of battering David and Gladys Larke, aged 62 and 59 respectively, to death with a baseball bat on April 27, 2001. The murders occurred a week after he and his ex-girlfriend broke it off.
He was given two death sentences as well as a 30-year jail term for first-degree burglary having stolen from the couple on the date of the murders.
He’s lost any appeals he’s made against the death penalty and has been awaiting execution at Broad River Correctional Institution.
A firing squad execution typically involves a group of shooters, usually several soldiers, who are instructed to fire simultaneously at the condemned person, typically aiming for the heart, to ensure a quick and lethal outcome, while the prisoner is blindfolded and restrained.
The idea is that this will prevent the identification of who fired the fatal shot to minimise psychological distress for the shooters and to avoid disfigurement of the body by multiple headshots.
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