Death row killer who scrawled blood message selects gruesome execution method
Stephen Bryant has spent the last 17 years on death row in South Carolina after he admitted to shooting four men, killing three, in an eight-day crime spree in 2004
A convicted triple-murderer has selected his execution method decades after taunting authorities with a chilling message scrawled in blood.
Stephen Bryant, 44, has been on death row in South Carolina for the past 17 years following his admission to shooting four men, three fatally, during an eight-day rampage in 2004. His death sentence was confirmed after he murdered father and husband Willard "TJ" Tietjen, 62, at his isolated residence - before using Tietjen's remains to write a bloody message stating "catch me if u can".
More than 15 years following his conviction for the shocking murders, Bryant will face execution, scheduled to take place in under two weeks using his selected method.
Bryant has opted for execution by firing squad, with volunteers positioned to shoot from 15ft away on November 14, a date set after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal to overturn the sentence. He will be executed just over 20 years after Tietjen's murder.
Bryant allegedly faked vehicle trouble before shooting him, looting his property, accessing his computer and even answering a phone call from his wife and daughter - during which he told them about Tietjen's death. Tietjen's daughter Kimberly Dees gave evidence at Bryant's trial, informing the jury she had asked to speak with her father after the murderer picked up the phone, reports the Mirror.
Bryant chillingly told her "you can't, I killed him" after firing nine bullets into him. Detectives said the killer burned his eyes with cigarettes following the shooting. Officers discovered his body encircled by candles and the disturbing message written in his blood, created using a potholder his daughter had crafted for him as a youngster.
Prosecutors subsequently revealed he had shot and murdered two additional men in South Carolina's Sumter County in October 2004 as they were urinating after receiving a ride on the roadside. Bryant was convicted of three counts of murder and received the death penalty on September 11, 2008.
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His execution next month will occur after the Supreme Court refused to examine the sentence.
Bryant will be the second person after Mikal Mahdi to be executed by firing squad. Mahdi, another multiple killer, was found guilty in 2006 for a multi-state criminal rampage which ended with the killing of a law enforcement officer in South Carolina, resulting in his death sentence.
He was executed on April 11 this year by firing squad - after experiencing excruciating agony when marksmen failed to hit his heart.