South Carolina’s execution chamber. (Provided/SC Department of Corrections)
COLUMBIA — Brad Sigmon is set to be the fourth inmate executed in the state since September, according to a Friday death warrant from the state Supreme Court.
Sigmon, 67, is scheduled to die March 7. By state law, executions take place four Fridays after a death warrant is issued. Sigmon is one of three men on death row who have exhausted their appeals and are expected to receive death warrants in the coming months.
Sigmon was convicted in 2002 of beating his ex-girlfriend’s parents to death with a baseball bat a year earlier after she ended their three-year relationship and moved back home.
After killing David and Gladys Larke, Sigmon attempted to kidnap his ex-girlfriend, Becky Barbare, according to court records.
When she returned from taking her children to school, Sigmon forced her into a car, using her father’s gun. She jumped out. Sigmon chased and shot her, but she survived.
Sigmon was initially scheduled to die in 2021, but he was twice given a reprieve that year, and a third time in 2022, due the state’s inability to carry out an execution by lethal injection.
The state managed to restock its supply of lethal drugs after a 2023 law keeping nearly all information about the drug secret worked as intended.
A state Supreme Court ruling last September allowed executions to resume following a 13-year hiatus.
Opponents of the death penalty called on Gov. Henry McMaster to grant Sigmon clemency soon after his death warrant was issued Friday.
Sigmon was impoverished and had an undiagnosed mental illness that made him unable to defend himself, said Rev. Hillary Taylor, executive director for South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
Sigmon’s prison record shows no violent offenses since 2009, which is as far back as online records go, Taylor’s statement continued. Sigmon has lost privileges for disrespect, using drugs and possessing contraband, though he has not had a listed offense in nine years, according to his inmate profile.
“Executing the man Brad is today because of the tormented and ill man he was would accomplish nothing,” Taylor said in a statement.
McMaster has said previously that he will not announce clemency decisions until minutes before inmates are set for execution. No South Carolina governor has commuted the sentence of a death row inmate.
Questions over lethal injection
Sigmon’s attorneys have already made a failed attempt this year to halt his execution, claiming that the drugs the state uses for lethal injection were not as effective as officials said during the previous three executions carried out.
Richard Moore’s autopsy following his November execution shows that officials used two “massive” doses of the sedative pentobarbital, which is fatal in large quantities, to kill him. A medical professional did not declare Moore dead until about 20 minutes after his execution began, attorneys argued in a Wednesday petition.
Media witnesses reported that Moore’s movements appeared to stop after about four minutes. Freddie Owens, who specified before his September execution that he didn’t want an autopsy, and Marion Bowman, who was put to death last Friday, took a similar amount of time to stop moving, according to witnesses.
In each case, a medical professional did not enter the room for about another 20 minutes to report the official time of death.
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How many doses of pentobarbital Bowman received will not be known until his autopsy. The state Department of Corrections does not publicly disclose any information about its execution protocol, citing state law.
Without knowing the state’s protocol, Sigmon cannot decide whether he wants to die by lethal injection, his attorneys argued. In a one-sentence response, the state Supreme Court denied his attorneys’ request to halt his death warrant.
Sigmon has until Feb. 21 to decide whether he wants to die by lethal injection, firing squad or electrocution. A 2021 law that added firing squad as an option re-set electrocution as the default method.
Other death row inmates, including Bowman, have asked a federal judge to require state officials give more information about the drugs set to kill them, arguing that not all information must be kept secret under the state’s shield law expanded in 2023. A federal judge has repeatedly declined, paving the way for lethal injection to be used in all of the past three executions.
Sigmon’s crime
Sigmon and Barbare had lived together in a trailer on the Larkes’ property before Barbare broke up with Sigmon and asked him to move out.
On April 27, 2001, soon after David Larke served Sigmon eviction papers, Sigmon entered the Larkes’ home, looking to kidnap Barbare. She wasn’t home, but 62-year-old David and 59-year-old Gladys were.
Sigmon hit both of the Larkes repeatedly with a baseball bat until both were dead. An autopsy later found that Sigmon had struck each in the head nine times, crushing their skulls, according to court records.
When Barbare returned home, Sigmon used David Larke’s gun to force her back into her car. She jumped out and ran, with Sigmon pursuing. Barbare escaped, and Sigmon fled, prompting a manhunt.
Authorities found Sigmon at a campground in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where he allegedly confessed to officers from both Tennessee and South Carolina. Sigmon told them he had planned to kill both Barbare and himself, officers later testified.
Sigmon has never claimed innocence.
During his 2002 trial, he testified, “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I am guilty.”
He gave no evidence for his defense and did not enter a guilty plea because he wanted the jury to decide his sentence, according to court records.