Overview
- Stephen Bryant, 44, was pronounced dead at 6:05 p.m. ET after a firing squad at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia.
- Bryant pleaded guilty to a 2004 spree that left three men dead; he received the death sentence for killing Willard “T.J.” Tietjen and leaving a taunting message written in the victim’s blood.
- Bryant selected the firing squad from South Carolina’s options of lethal injection, electric chair, or gunfire; the protocol seats the inmate with a hood and an aim point over the heart for three volunteer shooters at about 15 feet.
- Courts declined last‑minute defense bids citing alleged prenatal brain damage and childhood abuse, and clemency was not issued before the execution proceeded.
- This marks South Carolina’s third firing‑squad execution in 2025 after a 13‑year statewide pause; the U.S. has recorded 43 executions this year, and a dispute persists over whether a prior South Carolina firing‑squad execution was botched.