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South Carolina Set to Execute Stephen Bryant by Firing Squad Tonight

The execution follows the state supreme court’s refusal to pause the case over defense claims of prenatal brain damage and childhood abuse.

Overview

  • Bryant, 44, is scheduled to die at 6 p.m. ET at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia with no appeals pending, and clemency remains possible though South Carolina governors have not granted it in the modern era.
  • It would be the state’s third firing-squad execution this year as South Carolina restarted executions after a 13-year pause linked to lethal-injection drug shortages.
  • Under the protocol, Bryant will be strapped to a chair with a hood placed over his head while three volunteer prison employees fire at a target over his heart from about 15 feet away.
  • Bryant pleaded guilty to a 2004 spree that left three men dead and one critically wounded, receiving a death sentence for the murder of Willard “T. J.” Tietjen and life terms for the other killings.
  • Attorneys continue to challenge the method after alleging a prior firing-squad execution of Mikal Mahdi was botched, a claim corrections officials deny.