The state of South Carolina executed a convicted murderer by firing squad on Friday night in the first such execution in the United States since 2010.

The inmate, Brad Sigmon, 67, was declared dead at 6:08 p.m. after a firing squad shot three bullets at the target placed over his heart, the State Department of Corrections said.

A judge had ordered Mr. Sigmon, who was convicted of beating his ex-girlfriend’s parents to death with a baseball bat in 2001, to choose from three methods of execution: lethal injection, electrocution or firing squad. His lawyer, Gerald King, said that Mr. Sigmon had chosen to be shot because he had concerns about South Carolina’s lethal injection process.

According to three reporters who witnessed the execution, Mr. Sigmon took several deep breaths before the shots were fired. After he was shot, his chest rose and fell about two times and his arms stiffened, according to the reporters, who were from The Associated Press, The Post and Courier and WYFF, a local TV station.

Mr. Sigmon is the first inmate in South Carolina history to be killed in such a manner. Polls show that a majority of Americans favor the death penalty, but many view the firing squad as an archaic form of justice. But as lethal injection drugs have become harder to obtain, and have at times resulted in botched executions, several states have recently legalized firing squads as an execution method.

Utah had previously been the only state to use a firing squad in modern times; it did so in 2010, 1996 and 1977.

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