A man sentenced to death will be the first prisoner to be executed via this method since 2010.
Brad Sigmon was put on death row back in 2001 after being convicted for the double murder of his ex Rebecca Barbre’s parents in South Carolina.
According to CBS, Sigmon, 67, beat her parents to death with a baseball bat while at their home in Greenville County. He then kidnapped Rebecca at gunpoint, according to prosecutors, but she escaped from his car as he attempted to shoot her, but missed.
In addition to a 30-year jail term for first-degree burglary, Sigmon received given two death sentences and has been on death row ever since.
After having numerous appeals rejected, Sigmon is scheduled to be executed on March 7, 2025.
Brad Sigmon has been on death row for over two decades (Getty Stock Photo)
The Guardian reports that South Carolina now grants death row inmates choice of execution methods – either via electric chair, lethal injection or firing squad. If they do not choose, then the default method is electric chair.
However, Sigmon has decided to die next month by a firing squad, making him the first US inmate to choose the execution method in 15 years.
He will also become the fourth inmate to be executed by a firing squad since 1976, with the last one taking place in Utah in 2010 with the death of Ronnie Lee Gardner.
The New York Post reports that Sigmon will be strapped to a chair and have a hood placed over his head while the execution takes place.
He will also have a target placed over his heart in the death chamber, while three volunteers will fire at him through a small opening around 15 feet away.
According to Signmon’s attorney, Gerald ‘Bo’ King, he didn’t end up choosing the electric chair because it would ‘burn and cook him alive’.
The inmate is set to be executed next month via firing squad (South Carolina Department of Corrections)
He said (via NBC News): “But the alternative is just as monstrous. If he chose lethal injection, he risked the prolonged death suffered by all three of the men South Carolina has executed since September — three men Brad knew and cared for — who remained alive, strapped to a gurney, for more than twenty minutes.”
King said the only remaining option was a firing squad, adding: “Brad has no illusions about what being shot will do to his body.
“He does not wish to inflict that pain on his family, the witnesses, or the execution team. But, given South Carolina’s unnecessary and unconscionable secrecy, Brad is choosing as best he can.”
Another of Sigmon’s spokespersons, Courtney Farrell, also said that he will be executed at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, where he is currently held.
A man who has been on death row for over a decade is set to be executed today.
In 2013, David Hosier was tied to the murders of Angela and Rodney Gilpin, which took place four years prior.
It’s believed Hosier had been in a relationship with Angela while she was separated from her husband, but the married pair went on to reconcile – leaving Hosier jilted and jealous.
The Gilpins were found dead in the hallway of their Jefferson City apartment building after being shot several times.
While both Angela and her husband died in the ordeal, Hosier was only convicted of his former lover’s murder.
Since his conviction, Hosier has remained on death row – but he has always maintained his innocence.
Despite this, he’s set to be executed this evening (June 11) in what will be Missouri‘s second execution this year.
His lawyers had asked for clemency on several occasions, but the requests have denied.
In a last ditch-attempt to save Hosier’s life, his lawyers filed again yesterday (June 10). Missouri Govenor Mike Parson chose to deny this, however.
David Hosier has been on death row for 10 years. (Missouri Department of Corrections)
Now speaking out before his execution later today, Hosier is still claiming he’s innocent.
Admitting he’s scared to die, the inmate told TheMirror.com: “Everybody, no matter what, is afraid of death. If they say they’re not, something’s wrong with them.”
Going on to maintain the fact that he was not the person who killed the Gilpins, Hosier went on: “I know I’m innocent. I was not there. I did not kill these people. Period. I don’t know who did, but they’re still walking around free.
“I still don’t understand how you can find a person guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and sentence a person to death when you have no witnesses to tie this person to the crime. You have no fingerprints, no DNA, no trace evidence, nothing tangible, no hard, physical evidence to tie me to this crime.”
Angela and Rodney Gilpin were found dead in 2009. (NewsNation)
He went on to allege that the only reason the murders were linked to him was because he had no witnesses and no alibi for the day of the crime.
However, court records showed that police found Hosier with 400 rounds of ammunition and 15 firearms in his car.
Other than that, it’s said that the authorities only had circumstantial evidence to convict the now 69-year-old.
Hosier will now die by lethal injection today at 6pm CT.
The window for the execution runs for 24 hours, according to the Missouri Department of Corrections.
A death row inmate’s final chilling words have been revealed after he was executed on Tuesday (June 11).
David Hosier was put to death yesterday by lethal injection at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Missouri after a decade in prison.
The 69-year-old was convicted for the murders of Angela and Rodney Gilpin in 2009, having allegedly had an affair with Angela.
According to Randy Dampf, who was a Jefferson City police officer at the time, and is now an investigator for the county prosecutor, Hosier killed the couple after Angela broke off their romance.
David Hosier has been on death row for 10 years (Missouri Department of Corrections)
This was further reiterated by Missouri governor Mike Parson, a former county sheriff, who said in a statement: “Ms. Angela Gilpin had her life stolen by David Hosier because he could not accept it when she ended their romantic involvement.
“He displays no remorse for his senseless violence. For these heinous acts, Hosier earned maximum punishment under the law.”
Hosier’s defence team at the time blamed his crime on the death of his father when he was 16 years old, citing that it caused trauma to the teen which the inmate wasn’t happy with.
He said that his trial should have focused on a lack of DNA, eyewitness accounts and fingerprints at the scene.
But in the end, he had a few thoughts on his mind.
He has always maintained his innocence (MISSOURIANS TO ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY)
His last words were: “I leave you all with love.
“Now I get to go to Heaven. Don’t cry for me. Just join me when your time comes.”
Hosier had always maintained his innocence in relation to the crime and was afraid of dying on death row.
The inmate told The Mirror one day before his scheduled death: “Everybody, no matter what, is afraid of death. If they say they’re not, something’s wrong with them.
“I know I’m innocent. I was not there. I did not kill these people. Period. I don’t know who did, but they’re still walking around free.
“I still don’t understand how you can find a person guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and sentence a person to death when you have no witnesses to tie this person to the crime.
The death penalty is a controversial subject (Getty Stock Images/JJ Gouin)
“You have no fingerprints, no DNA, no trace evidence, nothing tangible, no hard, physical evidence to tie me to this crime.”
Police, however found a protective order application in Angela’s purse and information about her being afraid of Hosier during the investigation.
According to court records, after their deaths, police believed that he was the killer and immediately tried to find him but when they followed his car, a chase ensued and when they caught him, he told the officers, ‘shoot me, and get it over with’.
That’s when they found 15 guns, 400 rounds of ammunition and a bulletproof vest in his car, which he blamed on being a fan of hunting.
However, they also found a note which read: “If you are going with someone do not lie to them.
“Be honest with them if there is something wrong. If you do not this could happen to YOU!!”
A death row inmate who kidnapped, raped and murdered a seven-year-old girl has been denied clemency and will be executed next week.
Richard Rojem was sentenced to death for killing his former stepdaughter, Layla Cummings, in 1984.
The seven-year-old’s body was discovered mutilated and partially clothed in a field in rural Washita County near the town of Burns Flat.
It was concluded that the child was stabbed to death.
Rojem, 66, has consistently denied being involved in the murder but has now exhausted his appeals.
His attorneys have argued his innocence, saying that DNA evidence taken from Layla’s fingernails did not link him to the murder.
Richard Rojem has been on death row for almost four decades. (Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board)
“If my client’s DNA is not present, he should not be convicted,” attorney Jack Fisher said.
He urged Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board to recommend clemency to the governor so the inmate could be spared execution and instead spend the rest of his life behind bars.
The Oklahoman reported that Rojem pleaded with the Board: “An innocent man doesn’t ever plead guilty to a crime he hasn’t committed. And the reason for that is obvious. If there is justice to be had, it won’t be had.
“I wasn’t a great human being for the first part of my life.
“And I don’t deny that. But I went to prison. I learned my lesson. And I left all that behind.”
However, Governor Kevin Stitt cannot overturn Rojem’s death sentence without a clemency recommendation from the Board.
On Monday (June 17), the Board unanimously denied clemency for Rojem, meaning he is scheduled to be executed via lethal injection on June 27. It is set to be Oklahoma’s second execution this year.
Layla Cummings was murdered in 1984. (Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office)
Prosecutors say there is other evidence aside from DNA that was used to convict Rojem, including a fingerprint that was found outside Cummings’ apartment on a cup from a bar that the death row inmate left just before she was kidnapped.
A condom wrapper was also found near the girl’s body – linked to a used condom found in Rojem’s bedroom, according to prosecutors.
While Cummings’ mom was not present before the Board, last month she wrote a letter to the panel, urging them to deny clemency.
As per AP, Mindy Lynn Cummings penned: “Everything she might have been was stolen from her one horrific night.
“She never got to be more than the precious seven year old that she was. And so she remains in our hearts – forever 7.”
A death row prisoner set to become the second person to be executed using nitrogen gas in a controversial execution method has filed a lawsuit against the state of Alabama.
Back in January, Kenneth Eugene Smith was executed at Holman Correctional Facility, Alabama.
This new execution method involved the use of nitrogen hypoxia, in which the inmate breathes in nitrogen through a respirator placed over their nose and mouth – killing them as a result of oxygen deprivation.
The state attorney’s general office said at a court hearing in December that the execution method would ’cause unconsciousness within seconds, and cause death within minutes’.
In a final statement before his passing, Smith said: “Tonight Alabama causes humanity to take a step backwards. … I’m leaving with love, peace and light.”
He then made the ‘I love you sign’ with his hands toward family members who were present, before concluding: “Thank you for supporting me. Love, love all of you.”
Now, Alan Eugene Miller, 57, is facing the same execution method after surviving an attempted execution by lethal injection in 2022 after it went past the midnight deadline.
Miller was sentenced to death in 1999 for the killing of Terry Jarvis, Lee Holdbrooks and Scott Yancy.
Alabama Department of Corrections
On February 21, Alabama filed a request to set a date for Miller’s execution by nitrogen gas.
However, his attorneys, who filed the lawsuit on Friday (March 29), are fighting against the use of the execution method after Smith ‘writhed and convulsed’ during his execution.
They also allege the state wants to ‘silence’ Miller for speaking out against his failed execution attempt, calling it a violation of his free speech and due process rights.
“Rather than address these failures, the State of Alabama has attempted to maintain secrecy and avoid public scrutiny, in part by misrepresenting what happened in this botched execution,” the lawyers claimed.
The lawyers also went on to claim that Alabama was unable to conduct the execution method ‘without cruelly superadding pain and disgrace, and prolonging death’.
Miller had previously filed a federal lawsuit against being executed by lethal injection, accusing prison officials of hanging him vertically while strapped to a gurney and poking needles into his veins for over than an hour.
UNILAD has reached out to Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall for comment.
