For the first time in its modern history, South Carolina has executed a prisoner by firing squad. WFAE’s Tommy Tomlinson, in his “On My Mind” commentary, says the echoes of that moment will last far longer than a rifle shot.
South Carolina executed a man by firing squad the other day.
It sounds like a headline from the 19th century, but here and now, in our days of artificial intelligence and virtual reality, the state lined up a prisoner and shot him dead. It was the first time in modern South Carolina history. The only other state in modern U.S. history to execute by firing squad is Utah, which has done it just three times, the last in 2010.
The man who died, Brad Sigmon, was one of God’s children, as are we all. But he wrote his own ticket. Back in 2001, he hatched a plan to kidnap his ex-girlfriend, kill her and then kill himself. But instead he came upon her parents at their home in Greenville County. He beat them both to death with a baseball bat.
Sigmon asked for the firing squad because he was anxious about death by lethal injection. But I’m not here to worry about the fate of Brad Sigmon. I’m here to worry about the ones who carried out the task of killing him.
The executioners were three corrections department employees who volunteered for the firing squad. They stood behind a wall with a rectangular opening, 15 feet from Sigmon. The same distance as the free-throw line to the basket.
They fired simultaneously at a white target with a red bull’s-eye placed over Sigmon’s chest. All three of their rifles had live bullets.
It could be that the purpose of three executioners is backup, in case a rifle misfires. But it also provides an out for the shooters. None of them will ever know for sure if they fired the fatal bullet.
Back in 2022, The State newspaper in Columbia published a heartbreaking story about how former executioners in the state prison system suffered from PTSD, depression and suicidal thoughts. They had mashed the button to activate the electric chair or pushed the plunger for a lethal injection.
These things are not natural, not normal and not necessary.
There is a line in the movie “Unforgiven” when Clint Eastwood’s character says: “It’s a hell of a thing, killing a man. You take away all he’s got and all he’s ever gonna have.” I don’t think Clint was just talking about the one on the wrong end of the gun.
I witnessed an execution back in 2005 at Central Prison in Raleigh. A man named Elias Syriani had stabbed his wife to death in the driveway of the Charlotte home they used to share. Their 10-year-old son witnessed the murder.
A few of us stood in the viewing room as Syriani was wheeled into the death chamber. He was connected to an IV line. At 2 a.m., three unseen executioners plunged syringes into IV tubes. Two of the syringes contained the lethal chemicals that would kill Syriani. The third went into an empty bag.
None of the executioners would know for sure if they killed a man that night. But the larger truth is, they all did.
Every time the state executes someone, we all do. And every time it happens, we take away a little more of all we’ve got and all we’re ever gonna have.
Tommy Tomlinson’s On My Mind column runs Mondays on WFAE and WFAE.org. It represents his opinion, not the opinion of WFAE. You can respond to this column in the comments section below. You can also email Tommy at ttomlinson@wfae.org.
