(NEXSTAR) – A South Carolina death row inmate is set to be executed on Friday, March 7. Instead of the more traditional lethal injection, the inmate—Brad Sigmon, 67—has chosen to die by firing squad, a method that has only been performed three times in the last 49 years.
Sigmon, who is being executed for the 2001 killings of his ex-girlfriend’s parents at their home in Greenville County, chose to forego lethal injection due to concerns that little is known about the drugs or process used in injections, according to his lawyer via the Washington Post.
The last time a firing squad was used was in Utah for the 2010 execution of Ronnie Gardner.
Despite rarely being used, death by firing squad is legal in several states. In total, five states allow the method of execution: South Carolina, Utah, Oklahoma, Idaho, and Mississippi.
The legalization of death by firing squad has become more frequent over the past few years, with each state only recently legalizing the method. Utah restored the method in 2015 following a short hiatus following the 2010 execution. Both South Carolina and Oklahoma legalized the method in 2021; Mississippi followed in 2022 and Idaho in 2023.
In most of these states, lethal injection is the standard practice for execution, with South Carolina being the outlier where electrocution is the default method.
In total, since 1976, the firing squad has been the least-used method for execution (three times), with Utah being the only state that has ever used it—1977, 1996, and 2010.
As for other forms of execution, lethal injection has been the most used in that time period with 1,428 executions, followed by electrocution (163) and lethal gas (15).