A South Carolina inmate has chosen to die by firing squad two decades after he murdered three men and taunted police with a chilling message threatening to keep killing.
Stephen Bryant, 44, will be put to death on November 14 by three volunteers firing shots at him from 15 feet away, the Associated Press reported.
The execution comes after Bryant sat on death row for 17 years for brutally murdering a father and husband in his own home.
Bryant was convicted of murdering Willard ‘TJ’ Tietjen, 62, in his secluded house and using his blood to announce his forth victim would be killed another two weeks, signing off: ‘Catch me if u can’ in 2004.
Investigators said Bryant targeted Tietjen at random and pretended he was having car troubles before shooting the innocent father.
After killing Tietjen, Bryant ransacked his home, used his computer, and even answered a call from his wife and daughter delivering the grim news that Tietjen was dead.
The victim’s daughter, Kimberly Dees, testified that when Bryant answered the phone, she demanded to speak to her father, and he responded, ‘You can’t, I killed him.’
When she replied, ‘This isn’t funny, who are you?’ he identified himself as a ‘prowler.’
Stephen Bryant, 44, will be put to death on November 14 by a firing squad in South Carolina (Pictured: Bryant in 2021 in prison)
Bryant was sentenced to death for the murder of Willard ‘TJ’ Tietjen, 62, in 2008 (Pictured: Bryant after receiving his sentence in 2008)
Tietjen’s body was found surrounded by lit candles, and the chilling message written in blood was written with a potholder his daughter had made for him when she was a child.
He had been shot nine times, and his face and eyes were burned with a cigarette.
Bryant was later arrested for the murder at his girlfriend’s home. Authorities said at the time he had a rap sheet with several burglary charges.
The sheriff during Bryant’s arrest, Tommy Mims, announced they caught the killer in a press conference, according to archival news footage.
In response to Bryant’s bloody challenge, Mims informed the public: ‘I’m happy to say that law enforcement has responded to that challenge and we have caught him.’
Prosecutors later convicted Bryant of two other murders: Clifton Gainey, 36, and Christopher Burgess, 35.
Bryant killed the two men in the same way, offering to give them rides until they had to urinate on the side of the road, and then shot them in the back.
Investigators also found that Bryant shot a man named Clinton Brown in the same gruesome way, but he survived the attack.
Bryant (pictured aged 23 in a 2004 mugshot) killed Tietjen in 2004 in his secluded South Carolina home. He left the father’s body surrounded by lit candles and wrote a message with his blood that read ‘victim 4 in 2 weeks. catch me if u can’
Bryant also pleaded guilty to the murders of Clifton Gainey, 36, and Christopher Burgess, 35
Bryant pleaded guilty in 2008 to three charges of murder. He was given life sentences for Gainey and Burgess’ deaths.
The defense argued that Bryant had been traumatized due to sexual abuse as a child at the hands of four male relatives.
His aunt, Terry Caulder, testified: ‘He was very upset. He looked like he was being tortured. It’s like his soul was just laid wide open.
‘In his eyes you could see he was hurting and suffering and he was living the abuse over again as it was coming out.’
The defense also pointed to Bryant’s addiction to drugs, including meth and joints sprayed with bug spray.
Bryant’s lawyers attempted to delay his death earlier this month, asking the Supreme Court for more time due to the government shutdown.
The request was denied, and Bryant was given until the end of the month to decide on an execution method.
The firing squad is an unorthodox choice and was only legal in Utah up until this year. There have been three inmates who have chosen to die in this manner since 1977 in the state.
A prisoner is killed by a firing squad while they’re strapped to a metal chair 15 feet away
The method has only been authorized in South Carolina, Utah, Idaho, Mississippi, and Oklahoma
However, South Carolina has already matched Utah’s record, as Bryant will be the third this year to die by firing squad.
Idaho, Mississippi, and Oklahoma also have authorized firing squad executions, but it’s never been done.
The method has generated backlash for being inhumane. The second man killed in South Carolina this year, Mikal Mahdi’s legal team argued that the shots nearly missed his heart.
Department officials with the state’s corrections office maintained that the bullets struck Mahdi’s heart in accordance with protocol.
During the execution, the prisoner is tied to the execution chair with their head shielded as three corrections department volunteers fire from a wall opening not visible to witnesses.
The firing squad is instructed to shoot the inmate’s heart. A target is placed over the prisoner’s uniform, directly over their heart.
