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Associated Press

South Carolina was preparing this week to execute a man by firing squad, a capital punishment method that hasn’t been used in the US in nearly 15 years.
Since the Supreme Court lifted its ban on capital punishment in 1976, states have used five different execution methods: lethal injection, electrocution, lethal gas, firing squad and hanging.
Brad Sigmon was scheduled to die Friday in South Carolina. He was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat at their home in 2001.
Here’s a look at how the US executes people:
Most US executions are by lethal injection
Lethal injection has been the preferred method in the modern era, with 1,428 carried out since 1976. Texas has done the most, killing 593 inmates, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre, a Washington DC-based non-profit centre.
Twenty-eight states as well as the US military and US government authorise the use of lethal injection, in which an inmate has a deadly mixture of drugs injected into them as they are strapped to a gurney.
But throughout its use, lethal injection has been plagued by problems, including delays in finding suitable veins, needles becoming clogged or disengaged and problems with securing enough of the required drugs.
“A number of states are beginning to experiment with new methods of execution … because of the problems with lethal injection,” said John Banzhaf, a professor emeritus of law at George Washington University Law School.

Use of electrocution is down since 2000
Nine states authorise the use of electrocution, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee. Since 1976, 163 electrocutions have been carried out. But only 19 have been done since 2000.
In this method, a person is strapped to a chair and has electrodes placed on their head and leg before a jolt of between 500 and 2,000 volts runs through their body. The last electrocution took place in 2020 in Tennessee.
Texas used electrocution from 1924 to 1964, killing 361 inmates, according to the state’s Department of Criminal Justice. The electric chair Texas used was nicknamed “Old Sparky”. It is now displayed at the Texas Prison Museum in Huntsville, where the state’s death chamber is located.
Alabama resumes the use of lethal gas
Lethal gas is authorised as the default execution method in eight states: Alabama, Arizona, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Wyoming.
From 1979 to 1999, 11 inmates were executed using this method, in which a prisoner would be strapped to a chair in an airtight chamber before it was filled with cyanide gas.
In 2024, Alabama revived this method when it became the first state to use nitrogen gas to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith. A mask is placed over a prisoner’s face and nitrogen gas is pumped in, depriving the person of oxygen and resulting in death.
Alabama’s last such execution took place in February.

Firing squads are rarely used
Since 1977, only three inmates have been executed by firing squad and all were in Utah, with the last one in 2010, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre.
Five states including Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah authorise its use, but it was not the primary execution method. For this method, an inmate is usually bound to a chair and is shot through the heart by a group of prison staffers standing 6 to 7.6 metres (20 to 25 feet) away.
Idaho has had firing squad executions on the books as a backup if lethal injection drugs were unavailable since 2023. But in the wake of last year’s botched lethal injection attempt on Thomas Eugene Creech, lawmakers were considering a bill to make firing squads the primary execution method.
The bill’s sponsor, Republican Senator Doug Ricks, has suggested Idaho could use a firing squad machine, triggering the guns electronically to eliminate the need for additional execution team members.
Hanging was once the primary execution method
In the US, hanging was the main method of execution until about the 1890s, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre.
Data collected by researchers of Us executions from 1608 to 2002 found 9,322 people were put to death by hanging, in which a person was blindfolded and their hands and legs were secured before a noose was placed around the neck and they fell through a trap door.
But in capital punishment’s modern era, only three individuals in the US have been executed by hanging in 1993, 1994 and 1996. New Hampshire’s remaining death row inmate could be executed by hanging if lethal injection was not available.


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How the US executes people: lethal injection, electrocution, gas and now firing squads

Since 1977, only three inmates have been executed by firing squad and all were in Utah, with the last one in 2010. File photo: AP

The gurney used for lethal injections at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Atlanta. File photo: Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP

South Carolina’s death chamber in Columbia, including the electric chair, right, and a firing squad chair, left. File photo: South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP

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South Carolina is set to use a firing squad to execute Brad Sigmon, a rarely used killing method in the United States


South Carolina is set to use a firing squad to execute Brad Sigmon, a rarely used killing method in the United States.


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}South Carolina is set to use a firing squad to execute Brad Sigmon, a rarely used killing method in the United States

Most US executions are by lethal injection

South Carolina is set to use a firing squad to execute Brad Sigmon, a rarely used killing method in the United States