A convicted mass murderer from South Carolina faced execution by firing squad on Friday after his final appeal to avoid the death penalty was rejected by the state's Supreme Court.
The Final Execution
Stephen Bryant, 44, was shot by three volunteers armed with rifles shortly after 6pm, marking the end of a legal battle that spanned more than two decades since his horrific crime spree that claimed three lives.
The execution proceeded after Bryant's last-minute petition failed, in which he attempted to attribute his violent behaviour to brain damage caused by his mother's substance abuse during pregnancy. The court determined that even if diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, it wouldn't have altered his death sentence.
Bryant selected the firing squad method due to ongoing difficulties in obtaining lethal injection drugs, becoming the third person in South Carolina to die by this method this year. He had also been offered the option of execution by electric chair.
A Terrifying Crime Spree
Bryant had remained on death row since 2008, when he pleaded guilty to shooting four men during an eight-day reign of terror across Sumter County in 2004. Three of his victims died from their injuries.
Residents lived in fear during his rampage, which reached its chilling conclusion when Bryant taunted police by writing a message in his victim's blood at the final crime scene.
His death sentence specifically resulted from the murder of Willard 'TJ' Tietjen, 62, whom Bryant ambushed at his remote home after pretending to experience car trouble. The killer remained in Tietjen's property afterwards, ransacking the home, smoking cigarettes, using the computer, and leaving the blood-written message: 'victim number four in two weeks, catch me if you can.'
In a further act of cruelty, Bryant answered a call from Tietjen's wife and daughter while still in the residence, identifying himself as the 'prowler' and informing them that Tietjen was dead.
Controversial Execution Method
The firing squad execution method has sparked significant debate in South Carolina, particularly after witnesses reported that killer Mikal Mahdi suffered excruciating pain during his execution earlier this year when shooters missed his heart.
In Bryant's case, three volunteers shot him in the heart from approximately 15 feet away while he was strapped to a metal chair.
Bryant's other victims included Cliff Gainey and Christopher Burgess, whom he picked up and offered rides before shooting them when they stopped to urinate by the roadside. A fourth victim, Clinton Brown, survived being shot in the same manner.
According to defence arguments presented during his trial, Bryant endured a traumatic childhood that included sexual abuse by four male relatives and his mother's heavy drinking during pregnancy. His aunt testified about his visible distress in the months preceding the murders, describing him as looking 'like he was being tortured.'
Bryant becomes the seventh inmate executed in South Carolina since the state resumed capital punishment in September last year, closing a chapter on one of the region's most disturbing criminal cases.
