Sigmon chose to be shot dead out of fear that lethal injection would result in a “prolonged death” following reports that the last three South Carolina men executed by pentobarbital, a sedative, took more than 20 minutes to die and one appeared to suffer a condition akin to drowning and suffocation. They were “three men Brad knew and cared for”, his lawyers said, and he feared a slow injection process or being “burned and cooked alive” by electrocution.