A South Carolina Supreme Court decision has paved the way for the scheduled execution of 44-year-old Stephen Bryant, who was convicted of three murders. The ruling removes the final judicial obstacle and sets the stage for the state’s third firing-squad execution of the year.
Legal avenue exhausted — brain damage plea rejected
Bryant’s last-minute appeal contended that his brain had been impaired by prenatal exposure to alcohol and drugs from his mother, and that his earlier legal team failed to fully investigate his childhood abuse and neuropsychological damage. The high court, however, ruled that even if such investigations had been conducted, they would not have changed the death sentence outcome, citing Bryant’s high level of planning and decision-making in the murders.
Details of the crimes and the execution method
The killings occurred in late 2004 in Sumter County, South Carolina, when Bryant shot three men. In one case, the victim’s eyes were burned with cigarettes and the words “catch me if u can” were scrawled in the victim’s blood on the wall. Facing difficulty acquiring lethal-injection drugs, South Carolina introduced the firing squad as a legal execution method. Bryant has opted for execution by firing squad, during which three shooters will fire from about 15 feet away after a hood is placed over his head.
Clemency hopes slim and precedent sparse
Although Bryant may still ask the governor for clemency, no modern governor of the state has ever granted such relief. Outside South Carolina, only three other U.S. inmates have been executed by firing squad since 1977, making this a rare and notable case. With his execution, Bryant will become the seventh person executed in the state since executions resumed in September 2024.
