XPost: alt.fan.states.south-carolina, alt.activism.death-penalty,   
   alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: sac.politics, talk.politics.guns   
   From: yourdime@outlook.com   
      
   An inmate on South Carolina's death row has chosen to die on March 7 by   
   firing squad, his lawyer said Friday.   
      
   Brad Sigmon, 67, who was convicted in 2002 of killing his ex-girlfriend’s   
   parents, would be the first condemned prisoner to be executed by that   
   method in South Carolina and the first inmate to die by firing squad in   
   the U.S. since 2010, when Ronnie Lee Gardner was put to death in Utah.   
      
   “The choice Brad faced today was impossible,” his attorney, Gerald “Bo”   
   King, said in a statement. “Unless he elected lethal injection or the   
   firing squad, he would die in South Carolina’s ancient electric chair,   
   which would burn and cook him alive. But the alternative is just as   
   monstrous.”   
      
   Had Sigmon chosen to die by lethal injection, King said "he risked the   
   prolonged death suffered by all three of the men South Carolina has   
   executed since September—three men Brad knew and cared for—who remained   
   alive, strapped to a gurney, for more than 20 minutes" before they died.   
      
   One of them was Richard Bernard Moore, who was convicted of killing a   
   convenience store clerk in 1999. He also had requested to die by firing   
   squad but changed his mind after the state procured lethal injection   
   drugs. Moore, 59, was executed in November.   
      
   As for Sigmon, he was left with a "shameful" dilemma, King said.   
      
   "The only choice that remained is the firing squad," the lawyer said.   
   "Brad has no illusions about what being shot will do to his body. He does   
   not wish to inflict that pain on his family, the witnesses or the   
   execution team."   
      
   Sigmon has spent more than two decades on death row after he was convicted   
   in the 2001 beating death of his ex-girlfriend’s parents.   
      
   Barring any last-minute appeals, Sigmon will be executed at the Broad   
   River Correctional Institution in Columbia, where he is being held, said   
   Courtney Farrell, a spokesperson for King.   
      
   South Carolina Department of Corrections spokesperson Chrysti Shain   
   declined to comment on Sigmon's decision.   
      
   The department said in a 2022 news release that the execution chamber at   
   Broad River "has been renovated to include the capacity to perform an   
   execution by firing squad."   
      
   "The chamber now includes a chair in which inmates will sit if they choose   
   execution by firing squad," it said. "The chair is in a corner of the room   
   away from the current electric chair, which cannot be moved."   
      
   Bullet-resistant glass has been installed between the witness room and the   
   death chamber, it said, describing the firing squad chair as "metal with   
   restraints" and "surrounded by protective equipment."   
      
   "The chair faces a wall with a rectangular opening 15 feet away," it said.   
      
   Condemned prisoners face a firing squad of three volunteers who work for   
   the DOC and are armed with rifles containing live ammunition, it said,   
   describing firing squad protocols. Witnesses will see the prisoner in   
   profile from the right side.   
      
   The inmate will wear a prison-issued uniform and be allowed to make a last   
   statement before being strapped into the chair and having a hood placed   
   over his head.   
      
   "A small aim point will be placed over his heart by a member of the   
   execution team," the statement said.   
      
   When the warden finishes reading the execution order, "the team will   
   fire."   
      
   "After the shots, a doctor will examine the inmate," it said. "After the   
   inmate is declared dead, the curtain will be drawn and witnesses escorted   
   out."   
      
   South Carolina received approval to perform executions by firing squad in   
   2022, a year after a state law was passed that made death by electric   
   chair or firing squad legal options for people on death row.   
      
   Lawmakers proposed the bill, which made electrocution the default method   
   of execution, because South Carolina was having trouble procuring the   
   drugs needed for lethal injection, which remains the most widely used   
   method of execution in other states.   
      
   Last year, Alabama became the first state to execute a prisoner using   
   another alternative to lethal injection, nitrogen hypoxia.   
      
   Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, was strapped to a gurney and pronounced dead 15   
   minutes after breathing in nitrogen gas through a mask, depriving him of   
   oxygen, said prison officials at the William C. Holman Correctional   
   Facility in Atmore.   
      
   King said, "Brad’s execution would set grim precedents for South   
   Carolina."   
      
   "He would be the first person that South Carolina has ever killed by a   
   firing squad and the oldest person South Carolina has ever put to death,"   
   King said. "He would also be only the fourth person to be killed by firing   
   squad in the United States in the last 65 years."   
      
   https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/condemned-south-carolina-man-chooses-   
   die-firing-squad-rcna193209   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)