Brad Sigmon is scheduled to be executed by the state of South Carolina for the murder of David Larke and Gladys Larke. His case highlights the troubling flaws in the justice system’s treatment of people who’ve experienced childhood trauma and undiagnosed, inherited mental illness. His case also shows that nobody is beyond redemption if we are given the chance to become different people.

Brad is a caring and hardworking Christian man. Despite a childhood marred by his father’s alcoholism and physical abuse and his mother’s instability and neglect, Brad began working factory shifts as a teenager so that he could buy food for his brothers and sisters. Brad also worked to keep their spirits up, shielding them from the horrors of their childhood with jokes and acts of tenderness. When his younger brother was injured and could not walk without pain, Brad, then 13, would carry him everywhere on his back.

In his thirties, Brad, still reeling from his childhood traumas, succumbed to a severe, inherited mental illness that, at the time, went undiagnosed and untreated. The nature of the crime and his behavior at trial was the product of this disorder, which caused manic episodes that left him unable to recognize or control his irrationality.

Brad is deeply remorseful. In prison, he has dedicated himself to his faith as he seeks repentance and forgiveness. As one minister observes, Brad could be “an informal chaplain on Death Row because of the ways he pastors and mentors his fellow inmates.”

Brad has not been involved in a single violent incident in his more than twenty years on death row. Because of his maturity and respect for security officers, they recognize him as a good influence on his fellow prisoners and have trusted him with many responsibilities, including passing out food trays, cleaning, running the laundry, and “assist[ing] the community with whatever they need.”

Brad remains a source of strength, spiritual discernment, and support to all who know him. He has maintained a close bond with his siblings, who have depended on his deep faith and steadiness while navigating the death of their father and the disabling illnesses of their mother.

Brad is himself in deteriorating health. Now 67, he has suffered at least one stroke and, due to a near-total blockage of his carotid arteries, is at great risk for another.

Brad would be the oldest person ever executed by South Carolina. Executing the man who Brad is today because of the tormented and ill man he was more than twenty years ago, would accomplish nothing. It would only deprive the many people who have come to appreciate and even rely upon Brad—his family, prisoners, guards, and ministers—of his example and aid.

Please sign this petition asking Governor McMaster to change Brad's sentence from death to life!