Friday Firing Squad

Anyone planning a trip to South Carolina this week?

• When you think of the term "human garbage," someone like Brad Sigmon might come to mind. 

  [...] One evening, after spending the night drinking and smoking crack with his pal, Eugene Strube, he made plans to kidnap Becky the next morning. He would go next door to her parents' house and tie them up while she took her children to school so they couldn't call the police. When Becky returned, he'd force her into his car and go. Strube promised to help, but he backed out at the last minute. So, Sigmon took matters into his own hands.   

  Rather than tie the Larkes up, he went to their home with a baseball bat. David asked his wife to get his gun, but before she could, Sigmon began beating him in the head. He then went into the other room and hit Gladys with the bat. He then went back and forth, beating each person until they were dead. When Becky arrived home, he forced her into her car, planning to take her to her North Carolina. She managed to escape, but he shot her several times with her father's gun before running out of bullets.  

  Police eventually located him in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and he confessed to all of his crimes, even admitting that he'd planned to kill Becky and then himself. In 2009, he was convicted of two counts of murder and burglary in the first degree and sentenced to death in South Carolina. Barring any last-minute reprieve, he'll die via firing squad in the Palmetto State on March 7. 
  

He turned down electrocution and lethal injection, so we say, "good riddance." We really need to bring back the older, more traditional execution methods, if for nothing else than the ability of the punishments to shock and appall the criminal element. Those who argue the death penalty isn't effective have yet to present anyone with a concrete example of an executed inmate ever committing another crime.