Since the long pause, four inmates have chosen lethal injection and two have died by bullets.
Killings terrorized a South Carolina county Prosecutors said Bryant also killed two men — one before and one after Tietjen.
Previous inmates executed have said methods are cruel The six inmates executed in South Carolina since September 2024 have argued the state’s methods are cruel and unusual punishments, but have not been able to stop their deaths.
Condemned inmates have also scrutinized the lethal injection procedures, which appear to now use two doses of the powerful sedative pentobarbital.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, South Carolina currently has 29 inmates on death row.
An execution has been planned for next month for a South Carolina prisoner who, more than two decades ago, killed a man, burned his eyes with cigarettes, and then used the victim’s blood to write “catch me if u can” on the wall.
Stephen Bryant, 44, was given a death warrant by the state Supreme Court on Friday. Because they deal with the federal court system and the U.S. government, Bryant’s attorneys requested a delay, but the court denied their request. S. The government is shut down.
This week, the U.S. S. Bryant’s death sentence was not reviewed by the Supreme Court.
In November, Bryant is being executed. Prosecutors claimed that in addition to killing 14 people for one murder, he also shot and killed two other men he was transporting while they were reliving their lives on the side of the road during the weeks that terrorized Sumter County in October 2004.
Bryant will become the seventh prisoner executed in less than 14 months since the state was able to procure a lethal injection drug and reopen the death chamber following an inadvertent 13-year lull, and the 50th person executed in South Carolina since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1985.
The deadline for Bryant is October. 31 to decide if he would prefer to die in an electric chair, by firing squad, or by lethal injection. Two inmates have died from bullet wounds and four have chosen lethal injection since the lengthy pause.
38 men have been put to death in the United States so far this year. S. with a prisoner in Arizona set to be killed by lethal injection on Friday. In the United States, at least five more executions are scheduled. S. . during 2025’s remaining months.
Blood-stained taunts on the wall.
Bryant visited Willard “TJ” Tietjen’s remote home in rural Sumter County and claimed to have car trouble before confessing to killing him.
Several shots were fired at Tietjen. There were candles lit all over his body. A potholder made by his daughter as a child was taken by someone, who wrote “victem 4 in 2 weeks” on the corner after dipping it in blood. On the wall, authorities wrote, “Catch me if you can.”.
Tietjen received multiple calls from his daughter, who grew increasingly concerned when he didn’t pick up. When she testified on the sixth call, an odd voice answered.
She was told she had the correct number by the person on the other end. After that, she insisted on talking to her father.
“You can’t; I killed him,” he said. He replied, “I’m the prowler,” to which I replied, “This isn’t funny, who are you?”. He responded, “I’m the prowler,” after I said, “pardon me, who are you?” Kimberly Dees testified before the judge who decided Bryant’s sentence.
A county in South Carolina was plagued by murders.
Additionally, according to the prosecution, Bryant murdered two men: one prior to Tietjen and one subsequent to him. He gave the men rides, and he shot them in the back when they got out to urinate on the side of desolate country roads.
A large portion of Sumter County’s 100,000 residents lived in terror due to the sporadic attacks while deputies desperately searched for the murderer. Nearly everyone driving on dirt roads was stopped by officers, who also advised people to be wary of strangers requesting assistance.
Bryant used drugs to blunt pain from alleged sex abuse.
According to Bryant’s attorneys, he was distressed in the months leading up to the murder and begged his aunt and a probation officer to get him help because he was tormented by the memory of being sexually assaulted as a child by four male relatives.
“He was quite agitated. It appeared as though he was being tortured. His soul seemed to have been exposed. Aunt Terry Caulder testified, “You could see in his eyes that he was living the abuse again as it was coming out, and that he was hurting and suffering.”.
According to Bryant’s defense lawyers, he tried to cope with the pain by smoking joints he sprayed with bug killer and using meth.
According to former prisoners, the methods used are cruel.
Despite their claims that the state’s methods are cruel and unusual punishments, the six prisoners who have been executed in South Carolina since September 2024 have been unable to prevent their deaths.
Attorneys for the inmates claim that the three rifle-wielding volunteers almost missed Mikal Mahdi’s heart, the second man killed by the firing squad. According to their explanation, Mahdi endured excruciating pain for three or four times as long as experts believe he would have if his heart had been struck directly.
However, Dr. Jonathan Arden, a pathologist employed by lawyers for condemned inmates, claims that the autopsy of Brad Sigmon, the first man in the state to be killed by firing squad, revealed three separate bullet wounds and an obliterated heart.
The lethal injection procedures, which seem to now involve two doses of the potent sedative pentobarbital, have also been closely examined by condemned prisoners. They claimed that while prisoners are paralyzed and unable to respond, they drown when a surge of fluid enters their lungs.
Those who witnessed the four executions say the inmates seem to have lost consciousness within a minute or so and have not seen any signs of struggle.
There are currently 29 prisoners in South Carolina on death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. In the state, no clemencies have ever been given.
