South Carolina Executes Prisoner via Firing Squad

South Carolina executed death row inmate Brad Sigmon on Friday, going through with the nation's first execution by firing squad in 15 years.

• Brad Sigmon, 67, did not receive a last-minute reprieve from the governor or the Supreme Court. He was pronounced dead at 6:08pm Eastern, reports the AP.
• Three volunteer prison workers armed with rifles shot him, aiming for a target placed over his heart as he sat in the state's death chamber. It's the first time South Carolina has used the method. Utah used it last in the US, in 2010.
• Sigmon brutally murdered the parents of his ex-girlfriend with a baseball bat in 2001, per USA Today. He also kidnapped and shot his ex, but she escaped and survived.
• Critics called the use of a firing squad inhumane and dangerous, but there's a competing school of thought that views it as more humane than either electrocution or lethal injection.

(More firing squad stories.)