Desperate final plea of death row inmate Brad Sigmon before he’s shot dead in firing squad TONIGHT

A desperate double murderer is hoping for a last-minute stay of execution before he becomes the first US inmate to die by firing squad in 15 years. 

Brad Sigmon, 67, is scheduled to die at 6pm EST tonight at the Broad River Correctional Institute in Columbia, South Carolina. 

Sigmon faces execution for the brutal baseball bat beating deaths of his ex-girlfriend’s parents David and Gladys Larke in 2001. 

He had been offered the choice between lethal injection, the electric chair and firing squad, and chose the latter due to fears over recent issues with expired lethal injection drugs and the pain of the chair. 

Hours before his execution on Friday, the South Carolina Supreme Court rejected his final appeal, meaning Sigmon will have to hope for an intervention from Governor Henry McMaster to spare his life. 

Sigmon’s attorney Bo King says he should be given a stay as he was not given information about the lethal injection method when he had the choice. 

‘He wanted to know had the drugs expired, had they been diluted, had they spoiled? And none of those facts were disclosed despite his repeated requests,’ King told WYFF4. 

King also argued that Sigmon should never have received the death penalty for his crimes because he was suffering from mental illness at the time. 

‘The death penalty is intended for the worst of the worst, and so in a case like Brad’s, the evidence that he’s experiencing the psychotic break, that he’s not competent at the time of trial, we think that argues against the imposition of the sentence,’ he said. 

King previously cited the nationwide issues prisons have had in securing lethal injection drugs, causing several painful, prolonged executions in recent years, which he described as ‘monstrous.’ 

King said Sigmon’s final days have been spent thinking of the men he has befriended while on death row, which he says is evidence of his rehabilitation. 

The attorney said last month after Sigmon chose the firing squad method that he wanted to avoid the electric chair because it would ‘burn and cook him alive’, but felt lethal injections have become just as painful. 

‘If he chose lethal injection, he risked the prolonged death suffered by all three of the men South Carolina has executed since September — three men Brad knew and cared for — who remained alive, strapped to a gurney, for more than twenty minutes,’ King wrote in a statement. 

King was citing executions such as Freddie Owens’, the first in South Carolina in 13 years, who was pronounced dead a full 20 minutes after his execution started in September, per CNN. 

Speaking hours before Sigmon’s scheduled execution on Friday, King said he chose to have three buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken as his last meal so he could share it with other inmates on death row. 

‘Brad is someone who served as an informal chaplain to the guys on death row. He’s someone who models the kind of service and ministry that’s the central pillar of his faith,’ he added. 

King added that Sigmon was unexpectedly moved within the prison last year, leaving him isolated from his friends on the ward in his final months. 

‘The realization that he’ll never see them again is weighing very heavily on him. And again, with his last meal, he wanted to share something special with them,’ he said. 

After the South Carolina Supreme Court rejected his appeal on Friday, Sigmon will rely on an intervention from South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster. 

However, a last-minute stay of execution is unlikely, as no South Carolina governor has ever granted clemency to a prisoner since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, totaling 46 executions. 

If his execution goes ahead on Friday evening, Sigmon will be strapped into a chair in Broad River prison’s death chamber, have a hood placed over his head, and a target placed over his heart before three volunteers fire at him from around 15 feet away.

Only three inmates have been executed by firing squad in the US since 1976, all of which were in Utah, with the most recent taking place in 2010.  

The uncertainty surrounding lethal injections – which have been plagued by issues for years amid a shortage of the drugs used – led Sigmon to pick a method that he knows will be a violent death, King said.

‘He does not wish to inflict that pain on his family, the witnesses, or the execution team. But, given South Carolina’s unnecessary and unconscionable secrecy, Brad is choosing as best he can,’ he said. 

Sigmon was sentenced to two death sentences in 2001 for the baseball bat killings of David and Gladys Larke, 62 and 59 respectively, the parents of his ex-girlfriend Rebecca Barbare.

A week after Barbare ended their relationship, Sigmon snuck into her parents’ home in Greenville, South Carolina and bludgeoned them both to death with the baseball bat.

He then waited in the home until Barbare returned, at which point he kidnapped her at gunpoint and forced her into his car.

Barbare escaped from the car at some time during their journey, and although Sigmon shot at her, he missed and he fled the scene when she escaped.

Police launched an urgent manhunt for Sigmon, and after 11 days on the run he was caught in Gatlinburg, Tennessee and extradited back to South Carolina.

In a confession after his arrest, Sigmon told investigators that he targeted his ex and her family because if ‘I couldn’t have her, I wasn’t going to let anybody else have her.’ 

Amid issues with obtaining lethal injection drugs, firing squads have re-emerged as an execution method, with alleged quadruple killer Bryan Kohberger also reportedly facing the same fate if he is convicted at trial.

South Carolina reportedly spent $54,000 in 2022 to construct its firing squad apparatus, which will be in the same room as the electric chair and lethal injection gurney.

This included installing bulletproof glass in the witness booth, putting a basin under the chair to catch blood, and a wall was built for the shooters to stand behind.

Witnesses would be able to see the inmate being shot to death, but will not have a view of the volunteer shooters.