A South Carolina killer who murdered three people in a week and taunted police with a message written in blood is set to become the third inmate in the state executed by the controversial firing squad method this year.
Stephen Bryant, who once scrawled "catch me if u can" on a wall using the blood of 62-year-old Willard "T.J." Tietjen, is scheduled to be executed on Friday, Nov. 14, for the 2004 murder. If the execution moves forward, Bryant will be the 42nd inmate executed in the U.S. in 2025, the most executions carried out in a single year since 2012.
He'll also be only one of six men executed by the firing squad in modern U.S. history.
Under South Carolina's protocol, Bryant's executioners will place a hood over his head and strap him to a chair. Three volunteer corrections officers are supposed to shoot him in the heart simultaneously.
A defense attorney who witnessed the last such execution in April described it as "barbaric" and "a horrifying act that belongs in the darkest chapters of history." State officials defend the method as constitutional.
