03/03/2025 Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Gala Veldhoen (Netherlands, SOC), General Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the abolition of the death penalty, has expressed her dismay at the announcement of a firing squad execution in the United States.
“Brad Sigmon, on death row since his conviction in 2002, is scheduled to be shot to death on 7 March 2025. In South Carolina, where persons on death row must choose the execution method or else they are electrocuted, Sigmon is the first person to choose the firing squad over lethal injection or the electric chair. According to his lawyers, it was a decision made out of desperation and fear of the lethal injection drug. Autopsy results on the latest two executions carried out in South Carolina reportedly show that it took more than 20 minutes for both men to die, after two doses of pentobarbital,” she said.
“I am deeply shocked at the scheduled execution by firing squad, a method last used in the United States 15 years ago. Mr Sigmon will be tied to a chair and will have a hood over his head. A target will be placed on his chest and three volunteers will shoot at him from a distance of about 4.5 metres. PACE consistently and unequivocally condemns all forms of death penalty. No execution is ever humane, but making a person choose between immensely cruel and painful methods exemplifies the inhumane character of the death penalty. I therefore call on the US authorities to halt Mr Sigmon’s execution and to ban firing squad executions at all levels”, Ms Veldhoen concluded.