South Carolina Supreme Court Rejects Killer’s Final Appeal

🌴South Carolina’s Supreme Court has denied a final appeal from convicted murderer 👤Stephen Bryant, clearing the way for his ⚖️Execution by firing squad on Friday evening.

According to The Associated Press, Bryant, 44, was convicted of killing three people over a five-day rampage in 2004, leaving behind grisly crime scenes and blood-written taunts to police. He is scheduled to die at 6 p.m. at a Columbia prison, marking what will be the state’s third firing squad ⚖️Execution this year.

Bryant’s attorneys filed a last-minute appeal arguing his death sentence should be reconsidered due to evidence suggesting he suffered from severe brain damage caused by his mother’s drug and alcohol use during pregnancy. They claimed this condition, known as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, was never properly examined before his 2008 trial.

But the state’s high court unanimously rejected that argument Monday, ruling that the new evidence would not have changed Bryant’s fate. “By any stretch, (Bryant) demonstrated a high level of planning, decision making, and calculation,” the justices wrote.