South Carolina Inmate Chooses Firing Squad

South Carolina is now on track to carry out its first-ever execution by firing squad next month. Death row inmate Brad Sigmon, 67, chose the option over electrocution and lethal injection, reports the New York Times. He is scheduled to die on March 7.

• Rarity: The state made the option legal a few years ago, and the state Supreme Court affirmed it last year. Only Utah, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Idaho also give inmates the option of a firing squad, though Utah is the only state to have used the method in the modern era—in 2010, as well as in 1996 and 1997.

• His crime: Sigmon beat his ex-girlfriend's parents to death with a baseball bat in 2001, then kidnapped his ex at gunpoint before she was able to escape from his car. "I couldn't have her—I wasn't going to let anybody else have her," he said in his confession, notes the AP.
• 'Monstrous,' or not? Sigmon's attorney called a firing squad "monstrous" but said the alternatives were even worse. However, one expert on the subject—who generally opposes capital punishment—makes the case that firing squads might be the most humane method. That's assuming it's carried out correctly, with shooters aiming for the heart.

(More firing squad stories.)