Brad Sigmon, 67, personally requested the unusual punishment after fearing the electric chair would “burn and cook him alive,” his attorney Gerald King wrote in a statement.

Brad Keith Sigmon, who was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents in South Carolina, opted for the firing squad over the electric chair and lethal injection.

If the execution is carried out as planned, Sigmon is to be strapped to a chair in the death chamber and have a hood placed over his head and a target placed over his heart. Three volunteers, all with live ammunition, would then fire at him through a small opening about 15 feet (4.6 meters) away.

The South Carolina Supreme Court has rejected what is likely the final appeal of condemned man Brad Sigmon, clearing the way for Friday’s firing squad execution

Brad Sigmon, 67, convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend's parents in 2001, is scheduled to be executed on March 7.

Not much is known about the people who will fire the rifles. Prison officials said they have "completed all required training."

Brad Sigmon will be the first person executed by firing squad in South Carolina and the oldest person ever put to death in the state.

As South Carolina plans to carry our the first firing squad execution in 15 years in the United States, Professor Deborah Denno of the Fordham School of Law talks about the history of the unusual method to carry out the death penalty,