Stephen Bryant, 44, convicted over 2004 murder, was shot dead despite growing backlash against ‘barbaric’ method

South Carolina executed a man by firing squad on Friday, marking the third time the state has used gunfire to kill a person on death row despite growing backlash against the method.

Stephen Bryant, 44, had been sentenced to death for the October 2004 killing of Willard “TJ” Tietjen and pleaded guilty to two other murders. Bryant’s lawyers had argued in final appeals that the sentencing judge had been unable to consider his brain damage from his mother’s alcohol and drug use during pregnancy, but South Carolina’s supreme court declined to halt the execution on Monday.