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South Carolina Brought the Firing Squad Back. Now, Stop It.

South Carolina Brought the Firing Squad Back. Now, Stop It.

Last updated on: October 20, 2026 at 11:02 pm by Jeff Hood

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South Carolina Brought the Firing Squad Back. Now, Stop It. 2026-10-20T23:02:31-06:00 Jeff Hood

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South Carolina Firing Squad

South Carolina Brought the Firing Squad Back. Now, Stop It.

The military intends to pull Nidal Hassan out of his wheelchair, raise rifles and obliterate the chest of the convicted terrorist. It will be the first military firing squad execution since 1961.

Of course, the news carries a weight in South Carolina unlike nowhere else. Last year, this state used the firing squad three times. Brad Sigmon on March 7. Mikal Mahdi on April 11. Stephen Bryant on Nov. 14. Previously, no prisoner had been executed by firing squad since Utah shot Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010. Three shootings in three months. Gunshots and blood splatters.

South Carolina did not order Hasan’s execution. But it did take a method unused for fifteen years relevant again. Each execution made the last appear unremarkable. In the process, shooting people became normalized. This has created the space for the federal government and others to point to South Carolina as the exemplar of the practice.

While South Carolina successfully defended its practice, Idaho finished passed House Bill 37. This bill makes Idaho the only state with the firing squad as its primary method of execution. Later, a Justice Department report directed the Bureau of Prisons to add the firing squad to its protocol. In October, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the shooting of Hasan would be livestreamed, the first public execution in this country since 1936. Under immense public pressure, President Trump canceled the broadcast. However, the shooting is still scheduled to proceed. Based on the example of South Carolina, the nation went from “a backup if the drugs run out” to “broadcast it” in nineteen months.

Over the last year, I have written about the promises that sell the firing squad: certainty, honesty, humanity and free choice.

The method promises certainty. Three rifles. One target. One heart to obliterate. What could go wrong? The autopsy of Mikal Mahdi clearly showed two bullet wounds, not three. The entry points sat at the bottom of his chest, above the abdomen. The bullets shredded his liver and pancreas while his heart kept beating. Unsurprisingly, the state says all three bullets hit him, two through one hole, striking his heart first. Honesty?

How could it every be human or humane to shoot someone in front of an audience? Is this bizarro world?

Hearts are not standard issue. They differ in size, position and what surrounds them. There is no such thing as a surgical bullet.

In South Carolina, the method has promised free choice. All three men elected the rifle over the needle and the chair. Under your law, the electric chair is the default. The state offers a man multiple horrifying deaths and has the audacity to call it consent.

I have stood in fourteen execution chambers. I have watched multiple methods repeatedly fail to live up to what was promised. I’m not alone in my witness. Nitrogen executions are described as torture. Lethal injections are regularly botched. Firing squads have been documented to fail to kill immediately. So, let’s be honest about all of this. There is no such thing as a clean kill.

The victims should always be central to this conversation. What Nidal Hassan and the multiple people who were executed in South Carolina did was horrific. Questioning the firing squad will never be about excusing their actions. But it does ask whether we want to become like those we are trying to punish. Will a public demonstration of vengeance ever accomplish anything for the public good?

South Carolina is in a rare position. The state that renewed the firing squad can most honestly show the world what it costs. Your government holds the full record: the autopsies, the photographs of the targets, the training records of the shooters.

So, this is an invitation. Tell the nation what the firing squad has done to benefit the lives of South Carolinians. Has the rifle made you any safer? Has the rifle showed your kids how to be better citizens? Are those who participated in these executions any better for it? The questions are endless. The answers are very simple.

South Carolina: the nation needs you. December 3rd is rapidly approaching. We need to hear what you learned.

Rev. Jeff Hood is a death row spiritual advisor and author of The Lie of the Clean Kill: Idaho, the Firing Squad, and the Allure of the Bullet.

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South Carolina firing squad

About The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood

The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood is a Catholic priest (Old Catholic), theologian, and nationally recognized activist based in North Little Rock, Arkansas. A spiritual advisor to death row inmates across the country, Dr. Hood has accompanied more people to their executions than any other advisor in the U.S., including the first-ever nitrogen hypoxia execution in 2024. His work sits at the intersection of justice, radical compassion, and public theology. Dr. Hood holds advanced degrees from Auburn, Emory, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, University of Alabama, Creighton, and Brite Divinity School, among others. He also earned a PhD in metaphysical theology and founded The New Theology School, where he serves as Dean and Professor of Prophetic Theology. Author of over 100 books—including the award-winning The Courage to Be Queer—Dr. Hood’s writings and activism have been featured in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, NPR, CNN, and more. A frequent collaborator with men on death row, he sees theology as a shared, liberative act. Dr. Hood has served on the leadership teams of organizations like the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. His activism has earned multiple awards, including recognition from PFLAG and the Next Generation Action Network. On July 7, 2016, Dr. Hood led the Dallas protest against police brutality that ended in tragedy. His actions that night saved lives, and his story is now archived in the Dallas Public Library. A father of five, husband to Emily, and friend to the incarcerated, Dr. Hood rejects institutionalism in favor of a theology rooted in people, presence, and prophetic witness. You can read more about the author here.

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