South Carolina is set to carry out the execution of Stephen Bryant, a man convicted of killing three people over the span of five days more than two decades ago. Despite last-minute legal efforts to halt the execution, the state’s highest court denied the appeal, allowing the execution by firing squad to proceed as scheduled. This case has drawn attention not only due to the brutal nature of Bryant’s crimes but also because of the rare use of firing squad as a method of capital punishment in the United States.
Stephen Bryant, now 44 years old, is slated to be executed at 6 p.m. on Friday at a prison facility in Columbia, South Carolina. The crimes he committed occurred in 2004 and involved a series of violent murders that terrorized Sumter County. Over the course of five days, Bryant killed three men, leaving behind chilling evidence of his actions. One of the victims, Willard “TJ” Tietjen, was found in his home with cigarette burns on his eyes, and Bryant had written taunting messages on the walls in Tietjen’s blood, including the phrase “catch me if u can.” In addition to Tietjen, Bryant is also responsible for the murders of two men he was providing rides to, shooting them after they exited his truck to urinate.
Bryant’s legal defense team made a final appeal to the South Carolina Supreme Court in an attempt to stop the execution. They argued that the sentencing judge never fully considered evidence regarding Bryant’s brain damage, which they claim resulted from his mother’s alcohol and drug use during pregnancy. This condition, known as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), can cause significant cognitive impairments and is often linked to behavioral issues. Bryant’s lawyers contended that a full brain scan was never conducted before his 2008 trial, meaning his defense did not have the chance to show how his brain damage might have influenced his behavior and potentially mitigated his culpability.
Furthermore, Bryant’s attorneys submitted new evidence, including a 2024 interview with a clinical psychologist who documented Bryant’s reports of extensive abuse during his childhood. According to this psychologist, Bryant described suffering sexual abuse from male relatives, as well as physical and emotional abuse from his mother, a preacher’s wife, and several women in his neighborhood before he reached his teenage years. Bryant’s defense argued that these traumatic experiences, coupled with his prenatal brain damage, significantly impaired his ability to conform to the law and should have been taken into account during sentencing.
Despite these arguments, the South Carolina Supreme Court unanimously rejected the appeal late on Monday. The court acknowledged that while Bryant’s defense might have provided a different explanation for his behavior, it would not have changed the outcome of the death sentence. The justices emphasized that Bryant’s actions demonstrated a high degree of planning, decision-making, and calculation. They described the murders and related crimes—not impulsive outbursts caused by brain damage, but deliberate and methodical acts. Prosecutors supported this view, pointing to Bryant’s pattern of criminal behavior over several days, which included not only the three murders but also an additional shooting and two burglaries in rural areas east of Columbia.
With the judicial avenue exhausted, Bryant’s final hope lies in clemency from South Carolina’s governor. He may petition the governor to reduce his sentence from death to life imprisonment. However, clemency decisions in South Carolina’s modern death penalty era are exceedingly rare, with no governor having granted such relief to a condemned prisoner so far. Any decision from the governor would come only minutes before the scheduled execution, leaving minimal time for any last-minute legal or public interventions.
The method of execution in Bryant’s case is notable. South Carolina will use a firing squad, a method that has become increasingly uncommon in the United States. Bryant will be shot by three volunteers from a distance of 15 feet, with a hood placed over his head before the execution. This will mark the third time this year that South Carolina has executed a prisoner by firing squad. The state’s return to the firing squad is partly a response to difficulties in obtaining the drugs required for lethal injection, which caused a 13-year moratorium on executions.
Historically, the firing squad has deep associations with military discipline, frontier justice, and political repression. It has been used in various contexts such as mutinies and desertion in armed forces, as well as by authoritarian regimes in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. In the United States, the firing squad