Columbia, S.C. • The state of South Carolina executed a prisoner Friday evening with a firing squad, an extremely rare method that had not been used in the United States since 2010. The inmate, Brad Sigmon, 67, was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents, David and Gladys Larke, with a baseball bat in 2001.

The last time such an execution took place was 15 years ago, in Utah. The South Carolina inmate chose the method because of his concerns about lethal injection, his lawyer said.