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How death by firing squad is carried out as killer faces countdown to rare execution

FILE - Stephen Corey Bryant listens as his defense attorney presents his closing arguement during Bryant's sentencing hearing on Tuesday at the Sumter County Court House. Bryant plead guilty to three Sumter County murders in 2004. (Keith Gedamke/The Item via AP)
A death row killer in South Carolina awaiting execution has opted for one of the rarest execution methods in the United States: the firing squad. Stephen Bryant, 44, is scheduled to die on Friday, November 14, after spending nearly 17 years on death row as punishment from his crimes. Lawyers for the killer have made a final appeal to stop the execution but as the date looms closers, it’s worth a detailed look at how execution by firing squad actually works in the USA… (Picture: AP)
S.C. death row inmate Stephen Bryant in a September 2021 photo from the state prisons agency.
First, though – a quick summary of Stephen Bryant’s case and his situation. Bryant’s sentence was handed down to him after a killing spree back in 2004 during which he murdered three men across eight days. One victim, 62-year-old Willard ‘TJ’ Tietjen, was shot nine times after Bryant pretended his car had broken down. Investigators say that Bryant then ransacked the man’s home, burned the victim’s eyes with cigarettes and used a potholder dipped in blood to write ‘victem 4 in 2 weeks. catch me if u can’ [sic] on the wall with Tietjen’s blood for police. Bryant admitted the killings and in September 2008 was sentenced to death following convictions on three separate counts of murder. (Picture: South Carolina Department of Corrections)
FILE - Stephen Corey Bryant is led to a Sumter-Lee Regional Detention Center van after 12th Circuit Judge Thomas A. Russo gave him the death penalty for the murder of William Tietjen, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2008 in Sumter County, S.C. (Keith Gedamke/The Item via AP)
For years, Bryant remained on death row at Broad River Correctional Institution while appealing the sentence. The state’s sup­reme court declined to intervene and set his execution date. Under South Carolina law he was given a choice of methods: lethal injection, electric chair or firing squad. He chose the firing squad, making his scheduled execution one of the very few by bullets in modern US history. Now let’s look at exactly how it all works, according to The US Death Penalty Information Center… (Picture: AP)

Where do the ‘volunteers’ come from?

The South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) headquarters is seen behind barbed wire fence, where death row inmate Brad Sigmon, 67, will be executed on Friday by firing squad method, at the Broad River Correctional Institution, in Columbia, South Carolina, U.S., March 6, 2025. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
The method is often cited as using ‘volunteers’ to carry out the execution. In states that use firing squads, the shooters are typically recruited from within the prison or corrections system. Or local police departments. For example, in the case of Ronnie Lee Gardner in Utah in 2010, the squad comprised of certified law enforcement officers. In South Carolina, the protocol mentions ‘volunteers’ from the corrections department, though their identities are shielded by law. Their training, selection criteria and backgrounds remain largely confidential under state ‘shield’ laws. (Picture: REUTERS)

What distance are the shooters from the condemned?

Sigmon was the first person in the US to be executed by firing squad since 2010
Execution by firing squad typically places the shooters at a fixed distance from the condemned person. In Utah’s account of Gardner’s execution, the squad stood about 25 feet (approximately 7.6 m) away. For South Carolina the publicly-released protocol says that distance should be about 15 feet (roughly 4.6 m) away for firing squad executions. (Picture: Associated Press)

Why do some shooters have blanks and others have live rounds?

One rather well-known practice is to issue blank or dummy rounds to one or more shooters so that none knows for certain if they fired the fatal shot or not. This is intended to diffuse personal responsibility. In Utah’s historic cases the squad used rifles where one was loaded with a wax bullet or blank to create plausible deniability. However, in South Carolina’s recently reported protocol for such executions, all shooters were reported to have live rounds. For instance, in the example of Brad Sigmon’s execution, the state reportedly disclosed that all three shooters had live ammunition. (Picture: Getty Images)

Is the prisoner blindfolded?

This drawing by Mike Lee of KSL- TV/CBS shows how Gary Gilmore would be executed by a firing squad if the execution is to be held. Five riflemen, four with live ammunition would fire through a dark screen at a hooded Gilmore, seated in a chair with a red paper heart pinned above his his own heart. He was executed at the Utah state prison by firing squad 17/01/1977 at the age of 37.
Yes, typically the condemned prisoner awaiting death is hooded or has a hood placed over their head. In the Utah case, a black hood covered the prisoner’s head. In South Carolina’s arrangements the inmate is restrained in a chair, hooded, with sandbags around to catch blood. A medical professional places a target over the heart before the squad fires. (Picture: AP)

Where do the firing squad shooters aim?

The standard aim is at the heart. In states like Utah the protocol specified shooters aim at a white target placed over the heart to ensure rapid death. In South Carolina the protocol required a medical professional to locate the heart with a stethoscope and then pin a circular white cloth target over it. Shots through the heart or a large blood vessel rupture generally produce immediate loss of consciousness and death. So, within the context of the act, it’s thought to be as humane an execution as possible. (Picture: Getty Images)
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