South Carolina executes Stephen Bryant

South Carolina executes killer who left bloody message, marking third firing-squad execution this year

A South Carolina man convicted of killing 3 people over 5 days more than 20 years ago was executed by a firing squad on Friday evening.

Stephen Bryant, 44, was executed for killing a man in his home and writing "catch me if u can" on the wall with the victim's blood. He was pronounced dead at 6:05 p.m. following a firing squad. Three prison employees, all with live ammunition, volunteered to carry out the execution. Bryant is the 3rd man this year to die by South Carolina's newest execution method.

Bryant chose to die by firing squad instead of lethal injection or the electric chair. According to The Independent, his final meal was a seafood stir fry and chocolate cake, and when the time of his execution came he did not give a final statement. He briefly glanced at the 10 witnesses before the hood was placed on his head.

The shots rang out about 55 seconds later. Bryant made no noise. The red bullseye target that marks the location of his heart flew forward off his chest. He had a few shallow breaths and then a final spasm a little over a minute later. A doctor checked him with a stethoscope for before he pronounced Bryant dead.

The state has used a firing squad to put to death three of 5 inmates this year.

Lawyers for Bryant filed a last-minute appeal, arguing the sentencing judge never considered the severe brain damage he suffered due to his mother's drug and alcohol use during pregnancy. The Supreme Court declined in October to review Bryant's death sentence.

Bryant was convicted in the 2004 killing of a man in his home, and investigators said he burned Willard "TJ" Tietjen's eyes with cigarettes after shooting him and painting on the wall with the victim's blood.

Prosecutors said he also shot and killed 2 other men he was giving rides to as they were relieving themselves on the side of the road during a few weeks that terrorized Sumter County in October 2004.

In March, South Carolina carried out the nation's 1st execution by firing squad in 15 years. The state has used a firing squad to put to death three of 5 inmates this year.

Bryant is the 7th person put to death by South Carolina in 14 months after the state had a 13-year pause in executions when it couldn't obtain lethal injection drugs.

Convicted double murderer Brad Sigmon was executed by firing squad in March this year, having opted for the execution method over lethal injection or electric chair and becoming the first person in 15 years to face the method of execution in the US after Ronnie Lee Gardner was put to death in 2010 in Utah.

A witness to Sigmon's execution who had seen 10 previous death row sentences carried out said that he'd found it a 'faster' and 'more violent' method than the other ways, and that nothing he'd seen before prepared him for it.

A month later, fellow death row inmate Mikal Mahdi was also executed by firing squad and his attorneys pointed towards his autopsy report claiming that he had been shot lower down in the body than expected, the bullets missing his heart, and that he had not been pronounced dead until four minutes after he was shot.

The South Carolina Department of Corrections 'strongly refuted' the claims that they had botched the execution, insisting that all three bullets had struck Madhi's heart.

South Carolina turned to the firing squad as it struggled to find alternative methods to execute condemned inmates. By the early 2010s, the state had run out of lethal injection drugs, and no manufacturer would sell more without anonymity, a condition the law didn't permit.

Judges refused to schedule executions if electrocution was the only option. As a result, executions halted for 13 years, and death row cases began to stack up.

No South Carolina governor has offered clemency since the death penalty resumed in the United States in 1976.

Death row executions in the U.S. are on the rise, after creeping upward since the pandemic, when the country's use of the death penalty reached a historic low.

43 executions have been carried out so far in 2025 and 3 were scheduled for this week, but only two took place: one in Florida and Bryant's in South Carolina. An execution was scheduled in Oklahoma on Thursday, but Oklahoma's governor commuted the sentence of the inmate condemned in his state.

At least 14 others are scheduled to be put to death during the remainder of 2025 and next year.

Bryant becomes the 5th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in South Carolina and the 50th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on January 11, 1985.

Bryant becomes the 43rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1,650th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

Source: CBS News, Staff, Rick Halperin, November 14, 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

Comments

Idaho | Death row prisoners sue over state's new firing squad

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) – Days after Idaho made the switch to a firing squad for executions, two Idaho death row prisoners next in line to be put to death sued the state prison system, saying its director withheld information about how she settled on the specifics for carrying out the method. Attorneys for prisoners Thomas Creech and Gerald Pizzuto filed suit this week in state district court against Idaho Department of Correction Director Bree Derrick. In the filing, they called her approval of an updated standard operating procedure for the firing squad and lethal injection as a backup method “arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of discretion and in excess of the statutory authority of the agency.”

Texas: The inmates who refused to die quietly and had to be gassed out of their cells before execution

Former crime reporter Michelle Lyons, who witnessed nearly 300 executions in Texas, US, reveals the desperate acts of death row prisoners who refused to accept their fate After spending years or often decades locked up in a tiny cell for 23 hours a day, most Death Row inmates go willingly to their executions. However, some refuse to die quietly - with officers forced to gas them out of cells, strap up their heads and even give chase across prison grounds. Michelle Lyons, who has witnessed nearly 300 executions in Texas, US, exclusively tells Sun Online how certain inmates "fight like hell" in their last moments. On most occasions, Michelle watched from the witness area, with the killers already on the gurney - the stretcher where they'd be given a lethal injection. Seven prisoners once tried to escape from the Row in Huntsville - with one shoving magazines and newspapers under his clothes to help him roll over razor-wire fences. Others have had to b...

Two Germans to be caned, jailed for Singapore train graffiti

"Singapore: Disneyland with the death penalty" A Singapore court sentenced two Germans to nine months in prison and three strokes of the cane on Thursday after they pleaded guilty to breaking into a depot and spray-painting graffiti on a commuter train carriage. Andreas Von Knorre, 22, and Elton Hinz, 21, both expressed remorse while being sentenced in the state courts of the island republic. “This is the darkest episode of my entire life,” said Von Knorre. “I want to apologise to the state of Singapore for the stupid act ... I’ve learnt my lesson and will never do it again.” Hinz added: “I promise I will never do it again. I want to apologise to you, and my family for the shame and situation I’ve put them into.” Both were dressed in prison uniform — a white T-shirt and brown trousers with the word “Prisoner” down the sides and on the back. They spoke to the court in English. Singapore sentences hundreds of prisoners to caning each year as part of a syst...

Florida death row inmate wants DeSantis to attend his pending execution

Dennis Michael Sochor is scheduled to be put to death Tuesday, the 29th person executed by the state in the past 19 months. Dennis Michael Sochor, convicted of strangling an 18-year-old woman he met at a New Year’s celebration in a Broward County bar 44 years ago, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday at Florida State Prison. His last wish? To have Gov. Ron DeSantis personally observe his execution up close and personal.

Florida | Former prison warden who oversaw executions urges corrections workers to not participate in them

Recently Florida carried out the execution of Dusty Spencer , a 74-year-old Marine veteran, for the murder of his wife, Karen, in 1992. It was the ninth Florida execution this year. For their own sake, I urge Florida’s corrections workers to refuse to carry out another one. Before you dismiss me as some soft lefty, you should know that I am an Air Force veteran. I voted for Ron DeSantis for governor twice—and for Donald Trump for president three times.

We Asked Ohio’s Death Row What They Think of Governor’s Death Penalty Reversal

Like Gov. Mike DeWine, most agreed the death penalty is broken and does not deter crime, but not always with the same reasoning. Some people on Ohio’s death row praised Gov. Mike DeWine for having the courage to come out against the death penalty. Others said actions speak louder than words, and they want the governor to commute their death sentences to life without the possibility of parole. But all agreed with the governor on one thing: Ohio’s death penalty law is broken. DeWine said long delays in carrying out executions undermine its intended function as a deterrent. Condemned prisoners resoundingly said that the possibility of being executed never stopped anyone from committing murder.

Oldest inmate set to be executed in Florida will face strict spending limit for final meal

An entire category of food is also off-limits for final meal requests in Florida Florida is currently preparing to execute its oldest inmate later today (July 14), a 74-year-old convicted murderer who has been on death row since the 1980s—but his final meal will be limited by a strict budget. Dennis Sochor is scheduled to be put to death later today, making history as the oldest inmate to ever be executed in the state. The criminal, who has been on death row for nearly 40 years, will be administered the lethal three-drug injection, with the process due to begin at around 6pm.

Florida | Double-murderer set for execution, sparking intense legal battle over age, declining health

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant for the Pasco County execution of Dominick Occhicone, scheduled for July 28. Defense attorneys argue the 80-year-old double-murderer is too old and frail to be executed under the 8th Amendment. HOLIDAY, Fla. - Dominick Occhicone is scheduled to face execution on July 28 for the 1986 cold-blooded murders of his ex-girlfriend's parents in Pasco County, sparking an intense legal battle over his advanced age and failing health. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant for Dominick Occhicone, who has spent nearly 40 years on death row, according to state records. The man is about to turn 81 and was convicted of killing Raymond and Martha Artzner at their home in Holiday. The warrant comes shortly after the state executed 74-year-old Dusty Ray Spencer last week. If the scheduled July 14 execution of 74-year-old Dennis Sochor proceeds, he will surpass Spencer as the oldest inmate executed in Florida since 1976. Court records show that Occhicone wen...

UK | A Dead Woman’s Sentence Is Commuted to Life in Prison. Justice or Farce?

A Dead Woman’s Sentence Is Commuted to Life in Prison. Justice or Farce? On July 8, England’s Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary, David Lammy, informed his colleagues in the House of Commons that King Charles had granted a conditional pardon to a woman who was executed on July 13, 1955. The beneficiary of the King’s posthumous mercy was Ruth Ellis, who, as a report in the Guardian notes , “was the last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom.”

Germany | Neuschwanstein killer contests extradition over death penalty fears

Three years after the rape and murder of a US tourist near Neuschwanstein Castle, the convicted man, also from the United States, is contesting his extradition from Germany. The 33-year-old pushed two young women down a slope of around 50 metres during a visit to the world-famous castle. A 21-year-old later died in hospital and her friend was injured. The man raped and strangled the 21-year-old before pushing her over the edge. Kempten Regional Court sentenced him to life in prison for murder, attempted murder and rape resulting in death. The foreigners' office in the area then issued a deportation order against the convicted murderer.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog