Stephen Bryant Death Sentence: South Carolina Killer Who Murdered Three in 2004 Chooses to Die by Firing Squad

Stephen Bryant, the South Carolina man convicted of murdering three people during a brutal 2004 crime spree, was executed Friday evening after choosing to die by firing squad—one of the state’s newly reinstated execution methods. Bryant, 44, was pronounced dead at 6:05 p.m. after three volunteer prison employees fired live rounds from just 15 feet away, striking the target placed over his heart. Witnesses said Bryant glanced briefly toward them, made no final statement, and remained silent as the hood was placed over his head. Moments after the shots rang out, he took a few shallow breaths, then a final spasm before a doctor confirmed his death.

Bryant’s crimes left lasting scars across Sumter County. Over a span of five days in 2004, he carried out a series of killings that prosecutors described as methodical and sadistic. Among his victims was 24-year-old Willard “TJ” Tietjen, who was tortured, burned with cigarettes, and left with the taunting message “catch me if u can” scrawled on the wall in his own blood. Prosecutors said Bryant also shot and killed two additional men he had been giving rides to, targeting them as they stepped out to relieve themselves on a rural roadside. He ultimately pleaded guilty in 2008 to shooting four men—three fatally—and had remained on death row ever since.

In the final hours before the execution, his attorneys filed an emergency appeal, arguing that the sentencing judge failed to fully consider the significant brain damage Bryant suffered before birth due to his mother’s alcohol and drug use. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene, leaving the execution to proceed as scheduled.

Firing squad executes South Carolina serial killer who wrote message with victim's blood

South Carolina’s renewed use of the firing squad stems from a decade-long struggle to obtain lethal injection drugs after pharmaceutical companies refused to supply them without anonymity. With electrocution the only remaining method for years, judges halted executions entirely, creating a 13-year pause and a growing backlog of death-row cases. Lawmakers eventually approved the firing squad as an alternative, and executions resumed. Bryant is now the third inmate executed this year by firing squad in South Carolina, and the seventh put to death within the last 14 months—a sharp contrast with the nationwide decline in capital punishment during the pandemic.

No South Carolina governor has granted clemency since the U.S. reinstated the death penalty in 1976. As executions rise again nationwide, Bryant’s case highlights both the state’s controversial shift in execution methods and the unresolved debates surrounding capital punishment, mental impairment, and criminal responsibility.