South-Carolina
A look back at who South Carolina has executed on death row in 2025. Who remains?
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Near the tail end of 2024, South Carolina executed its first person in more than a decade.
The stoppage in the Palmetto State was due to government officials being unable to procure the drugs used in the lethal injection. The General Assembly passed a shield law, and prison officials were able to find a compounding pharmacy willing to make the pentobarbital if its identity wasn’t made public, ending the 13-year pause.
Since then, the state has killed seven men in around 15 months. As 2025 comes to a close, South Carolina executed five men on death row.
READ MORE | “South Carolina Supreme Court upholds constitutionality of state’s 3 death penalty methods.”
Who were they, and what were they convicted of?
From L to R: Marion Bowman Jr., Brad Sigmon,{ }Stephen Christopher Stanko,{ }Stephen Bryant & Mikal Mahdi (FILE)
Marion Bowman Jr.
This undated photo shows Marion Bowman Jr. released by the South Carolina Department of Corrections. Bowman was put to death by lethal injection on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025, in the evening. (South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP)
Bowman was convicted of the 2001 killing of 21-year-old Kandee Martin. Martin was shot in the head, and her body was found in the trunk of a car that had been set on fire in Dorchester County.
Up until his death, Bowman maintained his innocence – going as far as deciding not to ask the governor for clemency, saying he didn’t want to spend the rest of his life in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.
Lindsey Vann, Bowman’s death penalty attorney, filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking a last-minute stay of execution to review the case in the days leading up to his execution. Vann argued that witnesses against Bowman “were getting deals from the prosecutors to provide their testimony against Mr. Bowman, and we’ve uncovered information that his defense team wasn’t adequately representing him and really was pressuring him to plead guilty, despite not reviewing all of the discovery and not really preparing to confront the state’s case at trial.”
That appeal was eventually denied and Bowman was executed by lethal injection on Jan. 31. For his final works, Bowman penned a poem titled “Last Breath or Sigh.”
READ MORE ON THE CASE: “Marion Bowman Jr. executed in South Carolina, third inmate since September.”
Brad Keith Sigmon
FILE – This undated image provided by the South Carolina Department of Corrections shows Brad Sigmon. (South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP, File)
Sigmon was convicted of the 2001 baseball bat murders of his ex-girlfriend’s parents, after they had evicted him from their trailer.
Prosecutors say Sigmon beat the couple to death at their Greenville County home, moving between their separate bedrooms until they died. He then kidnapped his ex-girlfriend at gunpoint, though she managed to escape.
His final words were used to urge his fellow people of faith to end the death penalty.
“An eye for an eye was used as justification to the jury for seeking the death penalty,” Sigmon said. “At that time, I was too ignorant to know how wrong that was. Why? Because we no longer live under the Old Testament law but now live under the New Testament.”
Sigmon became the first inmate executed by firing squad in the modern history of South Carolina on Friday, March 7.
READ MORE ON THE CASE: “Brad Sigmon executed by firing squad, first in South Carolina’s history.”
Mikal Deen Mahdi
This photo provided by South Carolina Department of Corrections shows Mikal Mahdi. (South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP)
Mahdi admitted to killing Orangeburg Public Safety officer James Myers in 2004, shooting him at least eight times and then burning his body. Myers’ wife later discovered his remains in a shed on the couple’s Calhoun County property, the same location where they had been married 15 months earlier. Mahdi was arrested in Florida while driving Myers’ unmarked police pickup truck.
Mahdi also confessed to killing Christopher Boggs, a convenience store clerk in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, three days earlier. Boggs was shot twice in the head while checking Mahdi’s identification. Mahdi was later sentenced to life in prison for that killing.
Despite multiple appeals, petitions to the governor, and claims that Mahdi had PTSD due to childhood trauma, Governor Henry McMaster denied clemency moments before Mahdi was put to death by firing squad.
Mahdi became the second inmate executed by firing squad in the modern history of South Carolina on Friday, April 11.
READ MORE ON THE CASE: “Witnesses recount harrowing final moments of Mikal Mahdi’s execution by firing squad in SC.”
Stephen Christopher Stanko
Stephen Christopher Stanko
Stanko, 57, was convicted for the April 8, 2005, murder of 43-year-old librarian Laura Ling, the murder of 74-year-old Conway resident Henry Lee Turner and the assault of Ling’s teenage daughter.
Stanko attempted to overturn his death penalty conviction of Ling by appearing before the South Carolina Supreme Court in September 2007. Stanko also tried to appeal his conviction in the Turner murder case in February 2013. At both appearances, the court reaffirmed his sentence. Before his murder convictions, Stanko was previously incarcerated in 1996 for assault and kidnapping, where he served 8.5 years in prison.
Stanko was executed by lethal injection on Friday, June 13, at Broad River Correctional Institution.
READ MORE ON THE CASE: “Stephen Stanko executed in South Carolina, sixth inmate since September.”
Stephen Bryant
Current SCDC photo of death row inmate Stephen Corey Bryant. (SCDC)
Bryant, 44, was sentenced to death for the 2004 murder of Willard “TJ” Tietjen. Prosecutors said Bryant shot Tietjen, burned his eyes, and scrawled messages on the walls using Tietjen’s blood.
He was also convicted of killing two other men in Sumter County within the same five-day span—one prior to Tietjen’s death and one after. Authorities said Bryant had offered the men rides and shot them in the back after they stepped out of his car to urinate along the roadside.
Defense attorneys argued that Bryant had been unraveling in the months before the killings, telling both a probation agent and an aunt that he needed help because he was overwhelmed by memories of being sexually abused as a child by several relatives.
His attorneys filed a series of final appeals and sought clemency in the days leading up to the execution, but Gov. Henry McMaster declined to intervene. Like his predecessors, McMaster has never granted clemency to an inmate on death row.
Bryant was executed by firing squad at Broad River Correctional Institution on Friday, Nov. 14.
READ MORE ON THE CASE: “Stephen Bryant executed by firing squad, third in South Carolina’s history.”
Who is still on death row?
As of Dec. 24, 23 men remain on South Carolina’s death row. Fourteen of the men on death row are white. Nine of the men are Black. The particulars of the cases change; however, what remains the same is the process.
South Carolina’s Supreme Court issues execution notices when a defendant has exhausted all of their normal appeals. Final appeals may continue up until the defendant is in the death chamber, as lawyers wait for the final word from the governor or the United States Supreme Court.
The full list of death row inmates in South Carolina as of Dec. 24:
- Bayan Aleksey
- Steven Vernon Bixby
- Ricky Lee Blackwell, Sr.
- Luzenski Allen Cottrell
- Donnie S. Council
- William Dickerson
- Ron Oneal Finklea
- Mar-Reece Hughes
- Jerry Buck Inman
- Jerome Jenkins, Jr.
- Timothy Ray Jones
- Marion A. Lindsey
- Tyree Alphonso Roberts
- James D. Robertson
- Mitchell Carlton Sims
- Norman Starnes
- Bobby Wayne Stone
- Gary Dubose Terry
- Andres Antonio Torres
- James William Wilson
- Louis Michael Winkler
- John Richard Wood
- Anthony Woods
Richard Hricik, South Carolina’s Democratic nominee for attorney general, has officially launched his campaign for November’s general election.
Hricik was unopposed in the primary, automatically advancing to the ballot in November. He will now race against the Republican nominee David Stumbo, who beat Republican challenger Stephen Goldfinch in a runoff on June 23.
Hricik launched his campaign on June 25, just two days after the Republican primary runoff concluded.
In a press release Hricik, a Charleston attorney of more than 25 years, said that his campaign focuses on the fact that the rule of law should protect everyone equally.
“The Rule of Law isn’t red or blue. It has to apply to everyone, and be defended for everyone,” Hricik said. “An Attorney General who treats the law as their own political agenda — who protects some people and not others — threatens our democracy and makes every South Carolinian’s rights less safe. If someone attacks the State House in Columbia, I won’t ask who they voted for; it won’t matter — they are going to prison. That’s the law, and the Attorney General’s job is to defend and uphold The Rule of Law. For everyone.”
Hricik also announced that he has a no-money pledge for his campaign.
“An Attorney General is supposed to answer to two things: You and The Rule of Law. No one and nothing else,” Hricik said. “So, I take no money — not from special interests, not even from myself. That’s not a gimmick. It’s my firewall against corruption and influence. When you owe no one, you can fight for everyone and The Rule of Law.”
There has not been a Democrat in the attorney general office since Thomas Medlock, who left office in 1995.
Stumbo, who is currently serving a fourth term as Solicitor for the Eighth Judicial Circuit of South Carolina, ran his primary campaign on the basis of being a career prosecutor and lifelong Republican.
On runoff election night, Stumbo and his supporters gathered at the City Club of Greenville to watch results come in. In his winning speech that night, Stumbo said that while there hasn’t been a Democratic attorney general in South Carolina in many years, there would still be work ahead.
“We still got a lot of work to do, and I need everyone in this room fighting like crazy for the next few months to make sure that when we’re standing there on election night in November that we are officially the next attorney g eneral of South Carolina,” Stumbo said.
Ruth Cronin covers Greenville County business, growth and development. Contact her at rcronin@usatodayco.com.
HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WPDE) — A judge has started the process for South Carolina to pursue the death penalty against Brandon Council, the man accused of killing two women during an armed bank robbery at CresCom Bank in 2017.
Council is charged federally with murder after authorities said he walked into the bank to commit an armed robbery that ended with two employees being shot and killed.
He was originally sentenced to death in federal court, but the Biden administration commuted the sentences of 37 death row inmates, changing their status to life in prison.
With Council no longer facing execution under the federal sentence, South Carolina is moving to revive state charges that had been dropped before he was federally charged.
READ MORE: Spectators pack courtroom as Alex Murdaugh returns to court after convictions overturned
In court, prosecutors sought to add dates to the case calendar as they pursue the death penalty again.
Fifteenth Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson said the state had initially been looking at April 2027 for a trial date, but the judge denied that as too soon.
“We were being as aggressive as we could be. But by July 17th, the defense will give their order. We will turn in another order, and we’ll see if we can’t come to an agreement. That way, the judge doesn’t have a lot of problems. It’s just an agreement between the two sides,” Richardson said.
During the hearing, the judge and the state were asked about any bias before moving forward.
Richardson said, “I don’t know him. So he’s from a different state, and, they ask us to let them know about any bias. I don’t know about any bias. I just, you know, it’s whatever the crime is.”
He added, “The main thing for me was to get the schedule in order so that we know where we’re going, and it looks like we’re on the road to that, but we’re not there yet.”
READ MORE: Florence woman sentenced to 35 years in prison for 2-year-old’s death
At one point, Council sought to represent himself in court and objected to statements made by the prosecution.
By the end of the hearing, he changed his mind and accepted representation.
Richardson said he does not expect the trial until 2028.
The world of recruiting has been hot for South Carolina so far this summer, especially in the past week. For a class than stood at just 8 commits entering June, the Gamecocks now sit with 13 and have raced up the national rankings. Here is a recap of the month of June and where the Gamecocks may be looking to add in the coming weeks.
Iveon Lewis, Richmond, Virginia native, is the highest rated recruit Shane Beamer has added in June. The 6-foot-2 receiver is playable both inside and outside for Kendal Briles next year. Andrew Ivins, Director of Scouting for 247Sports, says Lewis passes the eye test for a Power Four wide receiver and has shown the ability to overwhelm opposing defensive backs. Wide receiver is a position group the team can afford to get better at and Lewis is a great piece to do just that.
Jackson Ross is the most recent addition as he committed on June 28. From right in there own backyard, Shane Beamer and his staff land a 6-foot-3 and 215 pound line backer that is an explosive athlete. Over his sophomore and junior season, Ross has averaged 118 tackles, 18 tackles for loss, double digit sacks, and multiple turnovers.
South Carolina was able to go into rival territory this past week and land Kelvin Millington out of Bogart, Georgia. The 6-foot-3 and 180+ pounder chose the Gamecocks over Texas Tech, Virginia Tech, Cincinnati, and Georgia Tech. He brings elite size and great athleticism to the position and South Carolina has been known to develop defensive backs in recent years.
James Ross is the second player South Carolina has landed right here in Columbia. Ross is a a 6-foot-5 offensive tackle, who doubles as a star in track and field. Beamer won his services over Cincinnati, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Coastal Carolina, Appalachian State and others.
Finally Clayton Lee is another offensive tackle the Gamecocks were able to land, this time out of the state of Florida. The 6-foot-7 and 290 pound tackle has the ideal size teams covet in the SEC. Randy Clements, South Carolina’s new offensive line coach, has two players added this month that showed help sure up the offensive tackle depth for next season and beyond.
Names to Keep an Eye on
NEWS: South Pointe (SC) 4-star DL Seth Tillman is down to five schools with four OVs locked in.
What’s next?
Read: https://t.co/S6geoAyghT pic.twitter.com/ncae17wQEy
— ChadSimmons (@ChadSimmons_) May 13, 2026
South Carolina would like to add multiple running backs in this class, after failing to land a high school running back in each of the last two cycles. New running backs coach Stan Drayton was able to land four-star tailback Brayden Tyson back in May. Looking to add to that room here are a few names to keep an eye on: Caden Waye, Elijah Kimble, Caleb Mattison, Franklin Richardson, and Joel Bradford.
Dewey Young is a four-star offensive tackle prospect from Kalamazoo Central High School in Kalamazoo, Missouri. Young is a top 10 player in the state of Missouri and a top 300 recruit in the country. South Carolina is battling with Colorado, Vanderbilt, Purdue, and Georgia Tech in his recruitment.
Finally, four-star defensive lineman Seth Tillman is another name to watch. Tillman named the Gamecocks along with Clemson, Georgia, Michigan, and Kentucky. Defensive line coach Travian Robertson is the primary recruiter tasked with landing the great playmaker out of Rock Hill, South Carolina.
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