When a South Carolina man who killed his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat steps into the death row chamber Friday night, it won’t be lethal injection or electrocution that ends his life. It will be three people holding rifles about 15 feet (4.

Only three people have been executed by firing squad in the U.S. since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

South Carolina plans to execute its first prisoner by firing squad on March 7 inside the same death chamber it's used for dozens of other executions. Firearms experts say that could be risky.

Condemned South Carolina inmate Brad Sigmon has chosen to die next month by a firing squad, a method of execution that has not been used in the U.S. in 15 years.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina man who is scheduled to die next week by firing squad is again asking that his execution be postponed and prison officials release more information about the state’s lethal injection drug and procedures.

Brad Sigmon, set for execution by firing squad on March 7, seeks a delay, citing concerns over South Carolina’s lethal injection process. If carried out, it would be the first U.S. firing squad execution since 2010.

Opinion editor Matthew T. Hall explores the history of firing squads in the U.S. ahead of South Carolina’s planned execution of Brad Sigmon by bullet March 7.

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 is scheduled to die Friday in South Carolina.

South Carolina inmate Brad Sigmon has chosen to die by firing squad March 7, a first for the state after he raised doubts about its lethal injection protocol.

Three people holding rifles will carry out the United States’ first firing squad execution in 15 years. Learn how it will all take place.