A statement from Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy: Six executions scheduled in March 2025, methods to include firing squad and nitrogen gas suffocation.
For Immediate Release: March 3, 2025
Contact: Moira Greaney at (e) moira@catholicsmobilizing.org (p) 301-456-4733
Website: catholicsmobilizing.org X: @CMNEndtheDP
A statement from Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy: Six executions scheduled in March 2025, methods to include firing squad and nitrogen gas suffocation.
WASHINGTON, March 3, 2025 — “For the first time in state history, South Carolina intends to execute an individual by firing squad. The execution is scheduled to take place this Friday, March 7. Brad Sigmon chose this method because compared to its alternatives — lethal injection and the electric chair — it seemed to him the most humane.
But South Carolina is not the only state testing out a new method in 2025. On March 18 — after 15 years of no executions in this state — Louisiana plans to execute Jessie Hoffman by nitrogen gas suffocation, a method that was recently introduced in Alabama in January 2024.
It’s hard not to look at these methods and think, How did we get here? And how does our society think this inhumanity is somehow acceptable? The reality is, those are the questions we should ask ourselves each time there is an execution, because the death penalty is contrary to human dignity and an affront to the sanctity of life.
The outrage we feel toward these execution methods is a reminder that over time, the system of capital punishment has become all the more deceptive to make executions appear more palatable, sterile, and “humane.” But executions are never any of these things.
Whether someone is shot, electrocuted, injected, or gassed each and every execution extinguishes a God-given life with inherent dignity and worth. Each and every execution is a blatant act of state sanctioned violence.
As we look ahead to the month of March, there are an additional four scheduled executions: David Wood in Texas (March 13), Aaron Gunches in Arizona (March 19), Wendell Grissom in Oklahoma (March 20), and Edward James in Florida (March 20).
In his 2025 World Day of Peace message, the Holy Father reiterated the Catholic Church’s firm opposition to the death penalty saying: “This penalty not only compromises the inviolability of life but eliminates every human hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation.”
Background on the use of the firing squad in the United States:
- Since 1976, only three executions by firing squad have been carried out, all in Utah.
- In 2004, Utah abolished the firing squad. It was not retroactive, therefore those sentenced before the ban could still elect that method.
- The last execution by firing squad was that of Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010.
- In 2015, Utah reinstated the firing squad as a backup method in the case that lethal injection drugs are unavailable.
- In 2021, Governor McMaster of South Carolina signed a bill into law allowing the electric chair and firing squad to serve as alternative methods to lethal injection.
- In February 2025, the Idaho House widely passed a bill to make the firing squad the primary execution method.
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Headquartered in Washington, D.C., Catholic Mobilizing Network is a national organization that mobilizes Catholics and people of goodwill to end the death penalty, advance justice solutions in alignment with Catholic values and promote healing through restorative justice approaches and practices. For more information and to join the movement, visit catholicsmobilizing.org.