Brad Sigmon was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend's parents in 2001. He chose the firing squad over the electric chair and lethal injection.

Unless the governor or the U.S. Supreme Court grants him a last-minute reprieve, Brad Sigmon, 67, will be the first person to die by firing squad in the U.S. since 2010 — and just the fourth since the death penalty resumed in the U.S. 49 years ago.

As someone who has studied execution methods in the U.S., I see the resumption of death by firing squad as part of a morbid search for “better” execution methods. It comes amid concern over botched lethal injection attempts and a scarcity of the drugs needed to carry out such executions.