A reporter who witnessed the first American execution by firing squad in 15 years said that the experience will forever remain “etched” in his memory.
In a first-person account published just before midnight, Jeffrey Collins of the Associated Press—one of just three journalists who were allowed to watch the execution—revealed the unique horror of seeing convicted double-murderer Brad Sigmon shot to death Friday evening.
“The abrupt crack of the rifles startled me,” Collins wrote. “And the white target with the red bullseye that had been on his chest, standing out against his black prison jumpsuit, disappeared instantly as Sigmon’s whole body flinched.”
Then, Collins continued: “A jagged red spot about the size of a small fist appeared where Sigmon was shot. His chest moved two or three times. Outside of the rifle crack, there was no sound.”
Once the man was on the ground, a doctor approached to take a look at him. It only took about a minute for the doctor to pronounce Sigmon dead at 6:08 p.m.
“Then we left through the same door we came in,” Collins wrote.
Sigmon, 67, became the oldest person to be executed in South Carolina. He chose death by firing squad over two more common methods: lethal injection and the electric chair. He is just the fourth American since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976 to face a firing squad.
“The firing squad is certainly faster—and more violent—than lethal injection,” wrote Collins, who has witnessed 10 other executions. “It’s a lot more tense, too.”
As a reporter covering South Carolina, Collins is no stranger to capital punishment.
“I’ve seen family members of victims stare down a killer on the gurney,” he wrote. “I’ve seen a mother shed tears as she watched her son die, almost close enough to touch if the glass and bars weren’t in the way.”
But watching Sigmon die was a unique experience.
“I won’t forget the crack of the rifles Friday and that target disappearing,” Collins wrote. “Also etched in my mind: Sigmon talking or mouthing toward his lawyer, trying to let him know he was OK before the hood went on.”
Sigmon was convicted of bludgeoning both of his ex-girlfriend’s parents to death in 2001. He also kidnapped his ex at gunpoint, but she escaped.
“I want my closing statement to be one of love and a calling to my fellow Christians to help us end the death penalty,” Sigmon said in a message shared by his lawyer, Gerald King.
King explained that his client felt like the firing squad was his only option after “the state’s three executions by lethal injection inflicted prolonged and potentially torturous deaths on men he loved like brothers.”
After the execution, King said, “Brad’s death was horrifying and violent. It is unfathomable that, in 2025, South Carolina would execute one of its citizens in this bloody spectacle.”
Sigmon is the first South Carolina death row inmate to die by firing squad. After a decade with no executions, the state in 2021 legalized the firing squad and electric chair as alternatives to lethal injection.
