Overview
- Bryant must choose his method of execution by Oct. 31 from lethal injection, firing squad or the electric chair.
- He admitted to killing Willard “TJ” Tietjen, with authorities reporting a taunting message written in the victim’s blood and cigarettes burned into the victim’s eyes.
- Prosecutors say Bryant also fatally shot two other men during a series of roadside attacks in Sumter County in October 2004.
- The planned execution would be South Carolina’s 50th since 1985 and the seventh in less than 14 months since the state resumed executions after a 13-year pause.
- Recent executions in the state have drawn legal challenges to both the firing squad’s accuracy and pentobarbital injections, though witnesses reported no visible signs of struggle.