A South Carolina man convicted of murder chose on Friday to be executed by firing squad.
Stephen Bryant, 44, will become the third person in the state to die by firing squad this year. He’s scheduled to be executed Nov. 14, when three volunteer shooters will open fire on him from 15 feet away.
South Carolina added the option of death by marksmen in 2021, in part due to the state’s struggles to procure the drugs required for lethal injection. A 13-year pause in state-sponsored killings ended in 2024.
Bryant has been sitting on death row since 2008 after he pleaded guilty to fatally shooting Willard “TJ” Tietjen inside the victim’s home in 2004, then taunting authorities by painting “Catch me if u can” on the the wall using Tietjen’s blood. Prosecutors said he also used cigarettes to burn his victim’s eyes.
Bryant also pleaded guilty to killing two other men he was giving rides to that same year, as well as well as the nonfatal shooting of another. For those, he was handed two life sentences, along with a combined 100 years, according to the South Carolina Daily Gazette.
Despite Bryant’s extensive crimes, there could still be a court battle in the weeks before he’s slated to be killed because of questions about firing squad executions.
Attorneys for Mikal Mahdi, the most recent South Carolina man to be executed that way, claim that their client suffered excruciating pain when shooters mostly missed his heart in April. He allegedly suffered for 75 seconds before succumbing to his wounds — about a minute longer than experts say he would have if his heart was hit directly.
Only three prisoners in the U.S. had been executed by firing squad since 1977 before South Carolina added to that total. The other convicts were shot in Utah.
With News Wire Services
