When you think of the term “human garbage,” someone like Brad Sigmon might come to mind.
After a three-year relationship, his girlfriend, Becky Larke, told him she wanted to break up, but Sigmon apparently didn’t take it too well. He refused to leave their home, so she moved in with her parents, David and Gladys. Sigmon begged her to come back, even though he believed she’d already started another relationship, and it’s said that he even began stalking her to see if she was dating another man.
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One evening, after spending the night drinking and smoking crack with his pal, Eugene Strube, he made plans to kidnap Becky the next morning. He would go next door to her parents’ house and tie them up while she took her children to school so they couldn’t call the police. When Becky returned, he’d force her into his car and go. Strube promised to help, but he backed out at the last minute. So, Sigmon took matters into his own hands.
Rather than tie the Larkes up, he went to their home with a baseball bat. David asked his wife to get his gun, but before she could, Sigmon began beating him in the head. He then went into the other room and hit Gladys with the bat. He then went back and forth, beating each person until they were dead. When Becky arrived home, he forced her into her car, planning to take her to her North Carolina. She managed to escape, but he shot her several times with her father’s gun before running out of bullets.
Police eventually located him in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and he confessed to all of his crimes, even admitting that he’d planned to kill Becky and then himself. In 2009, he was convicted of two counts of murder and burglary in the first degree and sentenced to death in South Carolina. Barring any last-minute reprieve, he’ll die via firing squad in the Palmetto State on March 7.
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Sigmon himself chose the firing squad because he was afraid the electric chair would “burn and cook him alive,” according to his attorney, Gerald King. He also declined a lethal injection because previous men killed via this method in South Carolina likely suffered. Their autopsies found that their lungs were swollen and filled with “blood and fluid.” One man’s execution took 23 minutes.
“Sigmon was forced to make his election. Lacking the basic facts necessary to assess the risks reflected by these lethal injections gone wrong — much less to determine which of South Carolina’s methods is the more inhumane — he chose the firing squad,” his attorneys said as part of a motion filed last week to delay the execution.
State prosecutors responded by saying that because he chose the firing squad, he has “waived any argument about lethal injection.”
The option to die via firing squad is only available in Utah, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and South Carolina, and it’s only been used three times since the death penalty became constitutional in 1976. All three of those incidents were in Utah. The Death Penalty Information Center describes this type of death as follows:
For execution by this method, the prisoner is typically bound to a chair with leather straps across his waist and head, in front of an oval-shaped canvas wall. The chair is surrounded by sandbags to absorb the prisoner’s blood. A black hood is pulled over the prisoner’s head. A doctor locates the prisoner’s heart with a stethoscope and pins a circular white cloth target over it. Standing in an enclosure 20 feet away, five shooters are armed with .30 caliber rifles loaded with single rounds. One of the shooters is given blank rounds. South Carolina’s execution protocol calls for the use of three shooters, each of whom is provided live rounds. Each of the shooters aims his rifle through a slot in the canvas and fires at the prisoner. The prisoner dies as a result of blood loss caused by rupture of the heart or a large blood vessel, or tearing of the lungs. The person shot loses consciousness when shock causes a fall in the supply of blood to the brain. If the shooters miss the heart, by accident or intention, the prisoner bleeds to death slowly.
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NBC describes South Carolina’s specific plans for the execution:
At the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, the shooters are volunteers employed by the Department of Corrections. Per officials, the three-person squad will fire rifles, all with live ammunition, from behind a wall about 15 feet from the inmate, who will be seated.
Before the shooting, the inmate is allowed to make a last statement, then a hood is placed over his head and a target pinned over his heart. Bullet-resistant glass separates the chamber from another room where witnesses, including media, will be permitted.
The department provides mental health support to staff members who are taking part in executions, said spokeswoman Chrysti Shain.
D’Michelle DuPre, a forensic consultant in South Carolina and a former medical examiner, said “botched” firing squad executions can be prevented as long as the shooters are properly trained.
Of course, those who oppose the death penalty feel that this is barbaric and that allowing death by firing squad is returning the United States to its past. There are numerous petitions online to stop the execution, and if you do a quick search on X, and you’ll find numerous pleas for this man’s life.
While I’m not a huge death penalty person, I can’t help but wonder where the sympathy is for David and Gladys Larke, whose lives were cut short by an evil man. Where is the outcry for the fact that they never got to enjoy their golden years or see their grandchildren grow up?
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NBC also wrote that “Sigmon has spent the past two decades in prison repenting, reading the Bible and praying.”
His lawyer said, “He’s very devout, and that’s been the organizing principle of his life ever since he went to death row. So he’s continued on that course. He is, I would say, fearful about what is looming.”
I’m sure he is. And I’m sure the Larkes were also fearful when a drugged-up maniac entered their home with a baseball bat. But I guess that’s for God to sort out because it sounds like Sigmon’s time on earth is almost over.
