"I want my closing statement to be one of love and a calling to my fellow Christians to help us end the death penalty," Brad Kieth Sigmon wrote ahead of his execution.

A South Carolina convict who brutally killed his ex-girlfriend's parents with a baseball bat in 2001 is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on Friday – the first execution of its kind in U.S. in 15 years.

South Carolina has killed death row inmate Brad Sigmon, 67, in the first firing squad execution in the U.S. in 15 years. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Sigmon’s death marks the fourth firing squad execution in U.