Brad Sigmon - Misplaced Pages

American convicted double killer held on death row in South Carolina

Brad Sigmon
2021 mugshot of Brad Sigmon
Born	Brad Keith Sigmon (1957-11-12) November 12, 1957 (age 67) South Carolina, U.S.
Criminal status	Incarcerated on death row

Conviction(s)	Murder (x2) First-degree burglary
Criminal penalty	Death (x2; murder) 30 years' imprisonment (first-degree burglary)
Details
Victims	David Larke, 62 Gladys Larke, 59
Date	April 27, 2001
Country	United States
State(s)	South Carolina
Imprisoned at	Broad River Correctional Institution

Brad Keith Sigmon (born November 12, 1957) is an American convicted murderer who was sentenced to death for the 2001 double murder of his ex-girlfriend's parents in South Carolina. Sigmon was convicted of battering David and Gladys Larke, both aged 62 and 59 respectively, to death with a baseball bat on April 27, 2001, merely a week after he and his ex-girlfriend broke off, and therefore given two death sentences, in addition to a 30-year jail term for first-degree burglary (Sigmon had stole from the Larkes on the date of the murders). Sigmon, who had since lost all his appeals against the death penalty, is currently on death row awaiting his execution at Broad River Correctional Institution, and his execution date is yet to be set.

Personal life

Brad Keith Sigmon, the oldest of five children in his family, was born on November 12, 1957, in the U.S. state of South Carolina. Sigmon's mother was 17 when she gave birth to him, and bore her four younger children one year apart of each other. Sigmon's father was part of the U.S. military and due to his line of work, the family often needed to move frequently, including the Philippines shortly after the birth of Sigmon's fifth and youngest sibling.

Sigmon's parents eventually divorced when he was still young, because Sigmon's mother Virginia Wooten struggled to manage the challenges of being a young mother while also adapting to military life, and Sigmon's father Ronnie Sigmon was an alcoholic who often abused his wife. Although he never laid a hand on his four younger children, Ronnie also physically abused Sigmon since the latter was the eldest child, and Sigmon often would protect his mother from being beaten by his father. Sigmon's parents eventualy remarried, and Sigmon often moved back and forth between his parents and stepparents.

Despite these events, Sigmon overall had a normal childhood. During his adolescent years, Sigmon first began to work at age 16 while in high school, so as to help alleviate his family's financial burden, because he took on the responsibility of taking care of his younger siblings after his parents' divorce. Nine weeks before he was supposed to graduate, Sigmon dropped out of high school at age 19 in order to get married, and he later had one son. According to Sigmon's son, parents, siblings, stepfather (Virginia's second husband) and aunt, Sigmon was a loving son, father and brother who deeply cared about his family. Court sources revealed that Sigmon struggled with both drug use problems and mental health issues during his adulthood.

Murders of David and Gladys Larke

On April 27, 2001, 43-year-old Brad Sigmon committed the double murder of his ex-girlfriend's parents, David and Gladys Larke, in South Carolina.

Prior to the double murder, Sigmon and a woman named Rebecca Barbare had been in a romantic relationship for about three years and lived together in a trailer close to Barbare's parents' home. However, earlier that year, after Barbare ended their relationship and moved in with her parents, Sigmon became progressively more obsessed with her, even going as far as to stalk her in an attempt to check if she had another man, in addition to his requests to rekindle their relationship.

On the eve of the murder, which was April 26, 2001, Sigmon and his friend, Eugene Strube, spent the night drinking alcohol and consuming cocaine. The following morning, Sigmon informed Strube that when Barbare left to take her children to school, he planned to go to the Larkes' house, "tie her parents up," and "get ahold of" Barbare. Strube was initially supposed to follow along with Sigmon's plan, but he later backed out.

Alone, Sigmon entered the home of the Larkes, where he found 62-year-old David in the kitchen and 59-year-old Gladys in the living room. Armwed with a baseball bat, Sigmon attacked the couple, beating them one after another with the bat and also going back and forth between the two rooms. Sigmon stopped the assault after the couple died, and both the Larkes sustained nine blows to their heads, which led to their skulls being crushed. After murdering the Larkes, Sigmon stole David's gun and waited for Barbare to return home.

When Barbare arrived back home, Sigmon forced her into the car on gunpoint. Sigmon's original plan was to pick up his own car and drive to North Carolina with Barbare. However, the plan did not go well as Barbare managed to jump out of the car and tried to run away. Sigmon shot at her while giving chase, but Barbare managed to escape, and Sigmon later gave up and fled the scene. Barbare subsequently underwent treatment in the Greenville Memorial Hospital.

After the murders came into revelation, the police conducted a manhunt for Sigmon, and a charge sheet was issued for Sigmon on charges of murder (pertaining to the Larkes), kidnapping and assault with intent to kill (pertaining to Barbare's abdcution). Sigmon was eventually captured in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, after he went on the run for 11 days, and he was extradited back to South Carolina. The state authorities also planned to seek the death penalty for Sigmon with respect to the double murder charges.

Murder trial

After his arrest, Brad Sigmon was indicted by a South Carolina grand jury for two counts of murder, first-degree burglary, and other offenses, including kidnapping.

Sigmon eventually stood trial in July 2002 for both counts of murder and a single count of first-degree burglary, and he reportedly admitted his guilt to the jury. The jury subsequently found him guilty of all charges, and they would decide on his sentence.

The prosecution sought the death penalty for Sigmon, stating that both Gladys and David Larke lived through the "most horrific death" and based on the aggravating factors of the case, Sigmon should be sentenced to death, so as to show him the same mercy he demonstrated to his victims. The defence, in response, urged the jury to consider that Sigmon acted out due to his relationship issues and cited the mitigating factors of Sigmon's case (including his good behaviour in jail and adulthood drug problems) in seeking life imprisonment for Sigmon. Eventually, the jury unanimously agreed to sentence Sigmon to death for both counts of murder on July 20, 2002. Apart from the two death sentences, Sigmon was also sentenced to 30 years in prison for the burglary charge.

Appeal process

On December 19, 2005, the South Carolina Supreme Court turned down Brad Sigmon's direct appeal against his two death sentences and double murder conviction.

On May 8, 2013, Sigmon's second appeal to the South Carolina Supreme Court was also rejected.

On September 30, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina dismissed Sigmon's first federal appeal.

On April 14, 2020, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Sigmon's appeal.

On January 11, 2021, Sigmon's final appeal was dismissed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

2021 and 2022 death warrants

After exhausting all his avenues of appeal, Brad Sigmon was originally scheduled to be executed on February 12, 2021. However, on February 5, 2021, a week before the date itself, Sigmon was issued an indefinite stay of execution by the South Carolina Supreme Court, after the court found that the state did not have the drugs necessary to facilitate the execution of Sigmon by lethal injection, which was the state's sole legal method of execution.

At that time, South Carolina had effectively imposed an unofficial moratorium on executions following the state's last execution in 2011. This was due to a shortage of lethal injection drugs, caused by the expiration of existing supplies and the refusal of many pharmaceutical companies to sell drugs for executions.

In response to the state's inability to carry out lethal injections, lawmakers in South Carolina passed new legislation to reintroduce the electric chair and legalize firing squad executions as alternative methods for future executions when lethal injection was not an option. The absence of lethal injection drugs in the state would eventually be resolved in September 2023, after the state authorities had successfully acquired new drugs, allowing it to resume lethal injection executions.

After the new laws were passed, Sigmon and another death row inmate Freddie Eugene Owens had their execution dates set. Sigmon was re-scheduled to be executed by the electric chair on June 18, 2021, while Owens's date was set exactly a week after Sigmon's (June 25). However, Sigmon's second death warrant was suspended (and in turn, Owens's), after the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that the executions of Sigmon and Owens should be postponed until they were given the choice of death by electrocution or firing squad, especially since the latter option was yet to be finalized and the former option was the sole available execution method at this point in time. Another reason for the stay of execution was that both Owens and Sigmon had filed a lawsuit against the state's revival of the electric chair.

A year later, Sigmon's third death warrant was issued, re-scheduling his execution date as May 13, 2022. However, in light of a lawsuit filed by the condemned against the electric chair and firing squad execution methods, Sigmon received another stay of execution until the full resolution of the lawsuit.

Lawsuit against state execution policies

In 2023, Brad Sigmon was among several death row prisoners who filed a lawsuit against South Carolina over the state's decision to introduce the firing squad and electric chair as alternative execution methods. The inmates argued that these methods were unconstitutional because they could inflict unnecessary pain and suffering, constituting cruel and unusual punishment. In response, the state contended that both the electric chair and firing squad adhered to existing legal procedures, and there was no law requiring executions to be instantaneous or painless for those sentenced to death.

On July 31, 2024, the South Carolina Supreme Court, in a 5-judge ruling, dismissed the lawsuit and upheld the constitutionality of both the electric chair and firing squad. The majority of the justices voiced support for these methods, with three backing the firing squad and four favoring the electric chair. This ruling paved the way for the potential resumption of executions in South Carolina, affecting all 32 inmates on the state's death row, including Sigmon. At the time of this ruling, five condemned inmates – consisting of Sigmon, Freddie Eugene Owens, Mikal Mahdi, Richard Bernard Moore and Marion Bowman Jr. – had exhausted all avenues of appeal and were listed for imminent execution on later dates.

The 13-year moratorium on executions in South Carolina came to an end on September 20, 2024, when one of the five inmates, Freddie Owens, was executed for the 1997 murder of a convenience store clerk. Richard Moore later became the second condemned inmate to die on November 1, 2024.

Scheduled execution

After the loss of his legal motion in 2024, Brad Sigmon remains on death row for murdering Gladys and David Larke as of 2024.

On August 28, 2024, a court order was issued allowing the state to carry out six executions over the next year, with each execution scheduled to occur 35 days (or five weeks) apart.

Sigmon was included in this group of six condemned inmates. The other five individuals on the list were Freddie Eugene Owens, Richard Bernard Moore, Marion Bowman Jr., Steven Bixby, and Mikal Mahdi. Owens and Moore – who were sentenced to death in 1999 and 2001 respectively – became the first two to be executed, on September 20 and November 1, 2024. Following their executions, Bowman, convicted in 2002 for the 2001 arson-murder of a woman, was set to receive his execution date on November 8, 2024, which was tentatively scheduled for December 6, 2024.

However, Bowman's death warrant was not issued as planned because Bowman, along with Sigmon and the other two inmates facing imminent execution, filed an appeal to the South Carolina Supreme Court. They requested that their executions be delayed until after the winter holiday period, specifically after Christmas and New Year's Day. In response, the state argued that it was not uncommon for executions to take place during the holiday season, citing five executions carried out by the state between December 4, 1998, and January 8, 1999. However, the lawyers representing the four death row inmates submitted a statement to the court, arguing that, "Six consecutive executions with virtually no respite will take a substantial toll on all involved, particularly during a time of year that is so important to families."

On November 14, 2024, the South Carolina Supreme Court granted the inmates a temporary respite, and agreed to not sign any new death warrants until at least January 3, 2025. As a result, Sigmon and the other three inmates scheduled for imminent execution had their execution dates postponed until 2025.

References

^ Sigmon v. Stirling , 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (United States).
^ "After SC high court rules executions can go ahead, these 5 men could be scheduled to die". South Carolina Daily Gazette. August 2, 2024.
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State v. Sigmon , South Carolina Supreme Court (United States).
State v. Sigmon , South Carolina Supreme Court (United States).
Sigmon v. Stirling , U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina (United States).
Sigmon v. Stirling , U.S. Supreme Court (United States).
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