Execution by firing squad carried out in the United States

Steven Bryant, a 44-year-old death-row inmate, was executed by firing squad on Friday afternoon local time in South Carolina.

According to USA Today and the Associated Press, state officials in South Carolina used the firing squad method for the third time in carrying out Bryant’s execution.

Bryant’s attorneys argued in a final appeal that the sentencing judge had failed to consider his brain damage, which they said was caused by his mother’s alcohol and drug use during pregnancy. However, the South Carolina Supreme Court on Monday refused to halt the execution.

His attorneys also claimed that before his 2008 trial, he was never given a full brain scan that could have identified the damage. They stated that his brain injury had been worsened by severe physical and sexual abuse committed against him by multiple family members during childhood, and that the judge had ignored numerous warning signs of brain impairment when issuing the sentence.

Despite these claims, the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office dismissed the arguments regarding Bryant’s brain damage as irrelevant.

South Carolina has revived executions over the past year after a 13-year halt to the death penalty, and has now executed seven inmates in rapid succession. In March, the state carried out its first firing squad execution—a method not used anywhere in the U.S. for 15 years and one that has faced extensive criticism and protests.

Death-row inmates in South Carolina can choose between the electric chair, lethal injection, and the firing squad.

While lethal injection remains the most common execution method in U.S. states, there are growing concerns over the use of pentobarbital, the sedative drug employed in lethal injections.

Utah is the only other state that has used a firing squad for executions in recent decades; its last use of the method was in 2010.

Meanwhile, Idaho is moving toward making the firing squad its primary execution method. Execution by firing squad also remains legal in Mississippi and Oklahoma.

Bryant is the 50th person to be executed in South Carolina since the state reinstated the death penalty four decades ago. He is also the 43rd person executed in the United States since the start of 2025.

The number of executions in the U.S. in 2025 is the highest recorded since 2012.

The next scheduled execution in the U.S. is that of Richard Berry Randolph in Florida. If carried out, it will be the 44th execution in the country this year—a figure not seen since 2010.