South Carolina | Brad Sigmon's lawyers file stay, citing 'disturbing' autopsy reports of recent executions

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCIV) — Attorneys for an inmate scheduled to be executed on March 7 filed a motion to halt proceedings to determine whether the information the state provides about its lethal injection drugs is sufficient.

Lawyers for Brad Sigmon, 67, convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend's parents at their home in Greenville County, argued in a motion to South Carolina's Supreme Court that the state hasn't released enough details about the lethal injection drug to give a condemned prisoner sufficient information to select the least inhumane method of execution, which is guaranteed by state law.

The filing follows the release of Marion Bowman Jr.'s autopsy report, which shows he was administered twice the amount of pentobarbital that the South Carolina Department of Corrections sworn in court was "sufficient." Bowman was not declared dead until more than 20 minutes, and his lungs were "massively swollen with blood and fluid," court documents state.

“The evidence is now undeniable: something is badly wrong with South Carolina’s lethal injection drugs," said Gerald 'Bo' King, chief of the Capital Habeas Unit for the Fourth Circuit. "The Department of Corrections has repeatedly sworn that they can humanely carry out an execution by lethal injection with a 'single dose of pentobarbital.' But the autopsies of Marion Bowman Jr and Richard Moore prove otherwise."

Bowman's autopsy report was released by the South Carolina Department of Corrections on Monday, Feb. 24, according to court documents. An autopsy for Richard Moore, who was executed on Nov. 1, found the same amount of pentobarbital was used to kill him over two doses given 11 minutes apart, according to his autopsy.

South Carolina has said its methods are similar to other states that use one dose of pentobarbital. In Georgia and Tennessee, only one 5-gram dose of the drug is scheduled for the start of the execution. The autopsy findings for Bowman and Moore showed they had 10 grams of the lethal injection drug in their systems.

Sigmon's lawyers claim the "single dose of pentobarbital" is a fictitious statement made by the South Carolina Department of Corrections. As a result, Sigmon's lawyers are asking the court to say his execution and provide more information about the lethal injection drugs, testing reports and storage conditions.

On Friday, Feb. 21, Sigmon chose to die by firing squad. If the execution is carried out, he will be the first U.S. inmate shot to death in an execution in 15 years.

Only three inmates in the U.S. have been executed by firing squad since 1976. All were in Utah, with the last one taking place in 2010.

Sigmon will be strapped to a chair and have a hood placed over his head and a target placed over his heart in the death chamber. Three volunteers will fire at him through a small opening about 15 feet away.

Justices rejected Sigmon's lawyer's previous attempts to delay his execution date as they sought to learn if Bowman was given two doses of pentobarbital during his Jan. 31 execution.

"Brad Sigmon has repeatedly asked for the basic facts needed to determine if South Carolina’s drugs are expired, diluted, or spoiled," King said. "He has thus far been denied. He chose the firing squad because he was unwilling to risk the prolonged, torturous death that he feared his friends endured. Mr. Bowman’s autopsy confirms that those fears were justified."

Sigmon's crime transpired in 2001 when he killed his ex-girlfriend's parents at their home. They were in separate rooms, and Sigmon went back and forth as he beat them to death, investigators said. He then kidnapped his ex-girlfriend at gunpoint, but she escaped from his car. He shot at her as she ran but missed, according to prosecutors.

At his death penalty trial in 2002, Sigmon spoke to the jury before they deliberated his fate.

"Do I deserve to die? I probably do," he said. "I don't want to die. It would kill my mom and my brothers and my sisters and my children."

Sigmon is older than any of the 46 people who have been put to death in South Carolina since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976. He would be the fourth death-row inmate executed in recent months. Others are Bowman, Moore and Freddie Owens.

Source: wpde.com, Staff, February 27, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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