South Carolina plans to execute a man by firing squad on March 7, the first such execution in the state and the first in the nation in 15 years. But firearms experts are questioning whether South Carolina's indoor execution setup is safe for the workers who will shoot the prisoner and the people who will watch.
Photos released by the South Carolina Department of Corrections show that the state intends to strap the prisoner, Brad Sigmon, to a metal seat in the same small, indoor brick death chamber where South Carolina has executed more than 40 other prisoners by electric chair and lethal injection since 1985.
Sigmon was sentenced to death in 2002 for killing his ex-girlfriend's parents with a baseball bat in their South Carolina home.
If the execution goes according to plan, at around 6 p.m. on Friday, in the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, Sigmon's head will be covered by a hood and a target will be placed over his heart. Three prison employees will be prepared to shoot Sigmon from a distance of about 15 feet, the state's overview of the firing squad execution protocol shows.
In Utah, the only state that has executed prisoners by firing squad in the past 50 years, only four of the five shooters fire a live round. One shooter fires a blank. South Carolina's squad will work differently: Each of the three guns will be loaded with ammunition.
"After the warden reads the execution order, the team will fire," the protocol states.
Journalists, lawyers and family members of the victim typically sit in a space directly beside the death chamber to watch the execution from behind a glass partition. The witnesses should be able to see Sigmon until he's declared dead, the protocol indicates. After that, a curtain will be drawn and they will be escorted away. But firearms experts who reviewed the official photos of the setup in the death chamber said they don't believe it's safe.
"I wouldn't shoot in that space. I wouldn't even be in the room," said Drew Swift, a firearms instructor who owns a firearms training academy in McLean, Va. "It's just an unnecessary risk."
A former South Carolina executioner, Craig Baxley, agreed that the death chamber appears poorly designed for an execution by firing squad.
Few people know the room better than Baxley, who executed ten people by lethal injection and the electric chair from behind a secret two-way mirror. Baxley was also a firearms instructor with the Department of Corrections and helped lead a team of shooters that responded to high-risk prison situations.
The former executioner said he was shocked to learn that the state had chosen to shoot a prisoner inside the death chamber rather than outdoors at a firing range. Firing indoors could put the members of the squad and witnesses at risk of being struck by a bullet or other material, he said.
"It's so rudimentary," Baxley said as he looked at an official photo of the setup in 2022, after the protocol was released. "If a round were to hit this chair anywhere in here, it could ricochet anywhere."
South Carolina's overview of its execution protocol states that the firing squad chair is surrounded by "protective equipment" and that the prison installed "bullet-resistant" glass between the witness room and the death chamber. But the two-way mirror Baxley stood behind in the death chamber was made of glass, too, he believes. When NPR asked the Department of Corrections whether the two-way mirror glass had also been protected with bullet-resistant materials, the agency did not respond.
Ricochets aren't the only danger when bullets are shot in closed spaces. Since lead particles and noxious gases are released with every gunshot, people who run indoor shooting ranges are required by law to conduct an initial determination of the potential airborne exposure to lead for employees in the space.
"If they have three guards each shooting one rifle, and one cartridge out of one rifle, then you're only talking about three gunshots and it's probably not the end of the world," said Swift, the firearms training academy owner. "But it's definitely not advisable to shoot multiple cartridges off inside of an enclosed space with no ventilation."
Hearing loss is another risk when shooting indoors. Shooting just one rifle in an enclosed space could be dangerous for people's ears, Swift said. The state will use .308-caliber ammunition, said Colie Rushton, the state's Department of Corrections director of Security and Emergency Operations. That's a standard size used for hunting and by the U.S. Military, said Swift, and simultaneous shots of that caliber fired inside a room would be extremely loud.
"My biggest concern would be my hearing," he added. "It's three shots taking place at the same time, which is going to be exponentially louder."
The overview of the execution protocol South Carolina released to the public does not indicate that hearing protection will be provided to witnesses or members of the firing squad. NPR asked whether the Department of Corrections had evaluated internal noise levels or analyzed the death chamber's ventilation but the agency did not respond.
The state confirmed in 2022 that it spent $53,600 to buy what it needed to prepare the death chamber for the firing squad, including the purchase of rifles for $14,600 and at least seven ballistic-grade steel plates for more than $5,000. Receipts shared with reporters covered up other information, however, like which vendors sold the materials to the Department of Corrections and how many guns were purchased.
In comparison with Utah, the state that last executed a prisoner by firing squad, the information South Carolina has provided about its plans is scant. Utah publicly shares a 138-page execution protocol that details how it conducts executions by lethal injection and firing squad. The document explains how employees are selected for the squad, how they train and how the state protects the workers from the prisoner's potentially dangerous bodily fluids. The overview of South Carolina's firing squad protocol states only that members of the squad "must meet certain qualifications" and consists of fewer than 250 words in total.
Gerald "Bo" King, a lawyer representing Sigmon, said South Carolina's relative secrecy about its execution procedures has hindered Sigmon as he prepared to decide how he would die.
The primary method of execution in South Carolina is the electric chair, but prisoners can instead choose to die by lethal injection or firing squad. Before announcing his choice of the firing squad on Feb. 21, Sigmon requested additional details about the drug South Carolina used to execute the people who were killed by lethal injection over the previous year.
Autopsy reports conducted after two of their deaths showed that the two prisoners took more than 10 minutes to die and required two doses of the drug – a sedative called pentobarbital – to kill them, lawyers told NPR. That could be an indication that the first dose was not doing the job correctly, King said, and that the prisoners may have suffered.
South Carolina has said that the pentobarbital it is using for lethal injection has been tested by the state's law enforcement division. But the state wouldn't tell Sigmon what tests had been conducted, the results of the tests, or the expiration date of the drugs, King said.
"Across the board, South Carolina is the most restrictive jurisdiction I've ever practiced in," the lawyer said. "So with all of these unknowns, there was no way for Brad to make an informed choice."
Ultimately, Sigmon chose the firing squad because he thought it would be his best option, King said. On Feb. 26, Sigmon asked that his execution be postponed to allow South Carolina more time to release additional information about its lethal injection drugs and procedure.
Sigmon is also concerned about the effect that watching a firing squad execution might have on the people who witness it, King added. Swift, the firearms instructor, confirmed that an execution like the one South Carolina has designed could be gruesome.
"It's going to be traumatic," Swift said. "And if three shots are all going to the same place that's aimed, that's going to be a really big hole. There's going to be a lot of blood. There's going to be a good amount of gore."
The last person executed by firing squad in the United States was Ronnie Lee Gardner, in 2010. A journalist who witnessed the execution in Utah said that when Gardner's chest was pierced with the bullet, he clenched his fist and blood seemed to pool around his waist.
Gardner was 49 when he was executed. Sigmon is 67. If South Carolina shoots Sigmon to death on Friday, he will be the oldest person the state has ever executed.
If you or someone you know is participating in the upcoming execution by firing squad in South Carolina, NPR would like to speak with you. You may be able to remain anonymous, and your name and the information you share will not be published without your consent. Email ceisner@npr.org to get in touch.
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