South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson asked the Supreme Court Friday morning to reject a request from a murderer to escape a firing squad just hours away.

Brad Keith Sigmon, 67, is set for execution at 6 p.m. Friday.

His lawyers asked the Supreme Court this week to pause the execution, saying the state didn’t give enough information about its supply of lethal injection drugs, creating a due process violation.

But in his latest filing, Mr. Wilson urged the high court to reject that argument — noting that Sigmon has repeatedly admitted guilt to “the bludgeoning murders of his former girlfriend’s parents.”

“Sigmon elected the firing squad on Feb. 21, 2025,” the filing read. “Sigmon should not be permitted to litigate questions about a method that he is not facing simply to delay his execution by another.”

Sigmon kidnapped his ex-girlfriend and beat her parents to death in 2001. 

He had planned to kidnap her after they broke up, then kill her. He ended up beating her parents to death and shooting the girlfriend, Rebecca Armstrong, in the foot as she escaped his car.

He is set to become the state’s first prisoner executed by firing squad in modern history unless the high court intervenes.

Sigmon chose to be killed by the team of armed prison staff in Columbia’s Broad River Correctional Institute after his lawyer said Sigmon didn’t want to be killed in an electric chair or deal with unreliable lethal injections.

Sigmon would be the first person executed by firing squad in the U.S. since 2010, carried out in Utah against convicted killer Ronnie Lee Gardner. Utah also killed prisoners in 1977 and 1996 by firing squad.

• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.

• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.