South Carolina executed convicted serial killer Stephen Bryant by firing squad Nov. 14, making him the third inmate to die by that method in the state in 2025.
Bryant died after being shot by Department of Corrections employees. He was the fifth inmate executed this year in South Carolina and the seventh to die in the 14 months since the state ended a 13-year pause on executions.
Stephen Bryant
Bryant, 44, murdered three people in an eight-day span in 2004 and left a derisive message in a victim’s blood to taunt law enforcement. He was convicted in 2008 after pleading guilty, and the state said he chose to die by firing squad instead of in the electric chair or lethal injection.
Death penalty attorney Bo King said Bryant suffered from a genetic disorder and had been the target of sexual and physical abuse, NBC News reported. “Mr. Bryant’s impairments left him unable to endure the tormenting memories of his childhood.”
The childhood trauma suffered by most condemned prisoners does not excuse their crimes but nevertheless presents a strong argument against capital punishment, said Hillary Taylor, executive director of South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
“Since this execution date was scheduled, most people have only heard about the violence Stephen Bryant did to others, but not the violence he himself experienced,” she said. Bryant “was a victim of other peoples’ violence long before he committed violence against others. In doing so, our state exposed lawyers, corrections officers, victim family members and members of our press corps to the traumatic and bloody experience of witnessing gun violence.”
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 43 executions had been carried out in 13 states as of Nov. 14, including a leading 16 in Florida and five each in Alabama, South Carolina and Texas. Arizona, Indiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Tennessee have each executed two people, followed by Louisiana and Missouri with one execution apiece.
In addition to South Carolina, death by firing squad is allowed in Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah. Idaho this year became the only state to designate firing squad as its primary form of execution.
On March 7, South Carolina executed Brad Sigmon by firing squad, the state’s first-ever execution by this method and the first execution of its kind in the U.S. since 2010.
Mikal Mahdi was the second inmate to die by firing squad in South Carolina this year. He was executed April 11.