Brad Sigmon, who admitted to killing his ex-girlfriend's parents, said he chose to die by bullets because he considered the other choices offered by the state to be worse.

A convicted double murderer has been executed by firing squad, the first such execution in the United States since 2010, according to the South Carolina Department of Corrections.

Firing squads have a long history in the U.S., dating back to 1608, though they have been rarely used in modern times.

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.

Executions by firing squad are permitted in five states, but the new law will make Idaho the only state in which death by firing squad is the primary form of execution.

Idaho will become the only state to fatally shoot death row inmates as its main execution method. Idaho Gov. Brad Little on Wednesday morning signed into law House Bill 37, which will make the firing squad the primary death penalty in Idaho.