Death row killer who left message in blood for police picks rare execution method

After spending almost two decades awaiting execution on death row, a South Carolina man who taunted police with a message written in blood has chosen how he will die. Stephen Bryant, now 44, is scheduled to be killed by the state on November 14 after a full 17 years on death row. He’s opted to be executed by firing squad, a method where volunteers with guns positioned 15 feet away to carry out the punishment. His final appeal to the Supreme Court was rejected, sealing his fate nearly two decades after a killing spree that horrified the state. (Picture: AP)

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Bryant’s death sentence was handed down to him back in 2008 following the murders of three men during eight days of extreme violence in 2004. His final victim was 62 year-old Willard ‘TJ’ Tietjen, a father and husband who lived in a quiet, rural part of South Carolina. Investigators said Bryant shot him nine times after pretending to have car trouble, before ransacking the home and using the victim’s blood to scrawl a disturbing message for police. (Picture: AP)

The words ‘victem 4 in 2 weeks. catch me if u can’ [sic] were written on the wall beside Tietjen’s body, an especially grim signature left at what police officers called one of the most disturbing scenes they’d ever encountered. The killer reportedly used a potholder made by Tietjen’s daughter years earlier to write the words, according to AP. Police said candles had been placed around the body in an almost ritualistic manner. And evidence suggested the victim’s eyes were also burned with cigarettes. (stock image) (Picture: Getty Images)

Bryant didn’t stop there. He then used Tietjen’s computer, answered his phone and even spoke to his wife and daughter when they called. During the trial, Tietjen’s daughter, Kimberly Dees, recalled how she begged to speak to her father. Instead, Bryant told her bluntly, ‘You can’t, I killed him.’ Her testimony later became one of the most haunting moments of the proceedings. (Picture: South Carolina Department of Corrections)

Bryant also took the lives of two other people in Sumter County. The two men were shot and killed on the roadside after Bryant had offered them lifts, prosecutors said. Investigators linked all three murders through ballistic evidence, with the same .22-calibre weapon being used in each attack. The killings appeared random, without motive beyond sheer brutality and opportunity. (Picture: Sumter County Sheriff’s Office)

When the case reached court in 2008, Bryant admitted to the murders but he showed little emotion at his hearing. Prosecutors described him as manipulative and violent, highlighting his decision to toy with victims’ families and investigators alike. The jury took little time to convict him of three counts of murder, leading to a death sentence handed down on September 11 of that year. (Picture: REUTERS)

Since then, Bryant has remained on death row at Broad River Correctional Institution while pursuing multiple appeals. Each attempt to overturn thedecision failed, culminating in the Supreme Court’s refusal to intervene. With that decision, South Carolina officials confirmed his execution date, allowing him to choose between two offered methods: lethal injection or the firing squad. He opted for the bullet over the needle. (stock image) (Picture: Getty Images)

Bryant’s choice marks one of the rare occasions the state has prepared for an execution by firing squad. South Carolina reinstated the method after shortages of lethal injection drugs stalled executions for years. For context, since 1977, only three other prisoners in the United States have been executed by way of firing squad. For Tietjen’s family, the announcement brings a long and painful chapter to a close, two decades after the day a stranger turned their father’s kindness into tragedy. (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Death row killer who left message in blood for police picks rare execution method

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