AP Reporter Describes Witnessing South Carolina's First Firing Squad Execution

Witnessing the Firing Squad Execution

• 🎤 Reporter Jeffrey Collins of the Associated Press details his experience witnessing the first firing squad execution in South Carolina since 2010.
• 🎯 The condemned inmate, Brad Sigman, was strapped into a chair with a target over his heart.
• ⏳ After a hood was placed over his head, there was an estimated 90 seconds to 2 minutes of heavy breathing from the inmate before the shots were fired.
• 💥 The sound of the gunfire caused a physical reaction in the room, with Collins noting that everyone tensed up and he himself flinched.

South Carolina's Execution Methods

• ⚖️ The state of South Carolina, through its elected representatives, added the firing squad as an execution method several years prior.
• 🗣️ Collins states his role is to inform the public about the realities of the death penalty, describing what it looks like, sounds like, and what actually happens during an execution.
• ⚡ This was Collins' 11th execution covered in South Carolina, including nine by lethal injection and one by electric chair, but his first by firing squad.