In a rare and controversial move, the state of South Carolina plans to execute death-row inmate Stephen Bryant via firing squad on Friday evening at the South Carolina Department of Corrections’s Broad River facility in Columbia. Bryant has exhausted his appeals and chosen a chair, target-board and three volunteers with rifles as his method of execution — a part of the state’s recent revival of older capital-punishment protocols amid chemical injection drug shortages.
Choice of Execution Method & Legal Context
South Carolina law allows condemned prisoners to elect from three methods of execution: lethal injection, the electric chair or a firing squad. Bryant opted for the firing squad, perhaps aware of recent debate over injection-protocol delays and chair procedures. When completed, his case will become only the third execution by gunfire in the state this year. Meanwhile, the state has not granted gubernatorial clemency to a death-row inmate since the death penalty was reinstated.
Crime, Conviction and Chronology
In 2004, Bryant went on a five-day violent spree in rural South Carolina, during which he murdered three men. One victim’s home was entered, a gun was used, and in one instance Bryant wrote a taunting message on a wall with the victim’s blood. He was convicted in 2008, sentenced to death, and after 21 years on death row accepted a death warrant scheduling his execution for November 14. His legal team sought last-minute stops, citing brain-damage from prenatal substance exposure and mitigating childhood trauma, but the state’s courts declined to intervene.
What Happens Next & Broader Implications
At 6 p.m., the execution will proceed with fewer than a dozen legal witnesses behind bullet-proof glass. Bryant will be strapped in a chair, a hood placed over his head, a target fixed over his heart, and three prison employees will fire simultaneously from approximately 15 feet away. A doctor will then confirm death. The method has drawn criticism on human-rights grounds, especially after past firing-squad executions in the state raised concern over missed shots and prolonged suffering. Bryant’s scheduled death underscores South Carolina’s aggressive resumption of capital punishment and raises ethical questions about the continued use of execution methods traditionally considered archaic.
