Convicted murderer Brad Sigmon, who had the dubious privilege of becoming the first US death row inmate in 15 years to be executed by firing squad, described lethal injection as 'just as monstrous'. Smith, who had languished on death row for three decades, was the first American prisoner executed by nitrogen asphyxiation.
Late one Friday afternoon in March last year, the curtain in the 'witness room' of South Carolina's state execution chamber opened to reveal convicted murderer Brad Sigmon strapped to a chair.
A large metal basin had been fitted underneath it to collect his blood and he was dressed all in black to hide the bloodstains that would soon soak through his clothes. With straps around his ankles, lap, waist and even his chin, he could barely move an inch. A black-and-white target had been Velcroed to his clothes over his heart.
A black hood was then placed over his head, before another curtain was pulled back to reveal three square gun ports cut into a wall 15ft away from him. Standing behind each was a volunteer prison guard holding a loaded rifle. Without any countdown, they suddenly fired together, the three special bullets -designed to fragment as much as possible on impact - opening up a fist-sized hole where his heart once was. Sigmon, 67, was pronounced dead three minutes later.
He had been sentenced to death for murdering his ex-girlfriend's parents, David and Gladys Larke, with a baseball bat in 2001. He'd had the dubious privilege of becoming the first US death row inmate in 15 years to be executed by firing squad, choosing it over lethal injection and the electric chair. Sigmon didn't pick the chair because it would 'burn and cook him alive', said his attorney Gerald King, adding that lethal injection was 'just as monstrous'.
Convicted Alabama murderer Kenneth Eugene Smith, on the other hand, became the first American prisoner ever to be executed by nitrogen asphyxiation in 2024. Two years earlier, three executioners had spent 90 awful minutes trying to kill him by lethal injection but had given up after they couldn't find the two veins they needed.
Pictured: The execution chamber at Utah State Prison where prisoners are executed by firing squad When I interviewed him a few months before he died, Smith, who had languished on death row for three decades, said he was 'terrified' at the prospect of being executed a second time and felt he'd been punished enough. His protests were in vain. He was strapped to a bed wearing a full-face mask that forced pure nitrogen into his lungs.
Witnesses said he thrashed violently in panic and terror before losing consciousness, suffocating some five minutes after the deadly gas began to fill his airways. An autopsy later revealed that his lungs had been flooded with 'dark maroon blood' - a sign of a so-called 'negative-pressure pulmonary edema'. Experts believe that, because he hadn't been sedated, he automatically panicked when he couldn't breathe.
The authorities had given both Smith and Sigmon the grim choice of how they would die and both rejected lethal injection - for decades America's de facto execution 'protocol'. Now many more death row residents face the same grisly decision. Donald Trump's administration has just revealed plans to add firing squads, nitrogen gas and electrocution as permissible ways of executing people convicted of the most serious federal crimes.
Some US states already have these alternative execution methods on their books to punish state crimes but rarely use them. The President, who has reportedly even mused about broadcasting executions live, is keen to expand not only the methods available but also the number of criminals meeting their end in these ways. To some, this will signal a chilling return to a more barbaric age. To others, it is merely fitting retribution for the worst of the worst criminals
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Convicted Murderer Brad Sigmon Executed by Firing SquadConvicted murderer Brad Sigmon, who had the dubious privilege of becoming the first US death row inmate in 15 years to be executed by firing squad, was executed for the murder of his ex-girlfriend's parents, David and Gladys Larke, in 2001. He had chosen firing squad over lethal injection and the electric chair.
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