Execution date set for man convicted of killing 3 in Sumter County crime spree

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS/AP) - A date has been set for South Carolina’s next execution.

Stephen Bryant, who pleaded guilty to killing three people during an October 2004 crime spree in Sumter County, will be executed on Nov. 14. The South Carolina Supreme Court denied a motion by Bryant to delay the execution on Friday.

Bryant killed Christopher Burgess, Willard Tietjen, Jr. and Clifton Gainey during a crime spree in 2004 - with all three of their bodies being found over a week within five miles of each other. Another victim, Clinton Brown, was also shot by Bryant but survived.

FROM 2004 | Suspect arrested for string of Sumter Co. fatal shootings

Authorities said Bryant notoriously taunted investigators after shooting Tietjen several times, leaving a message for investigators written in blood on the wall of the victim’s home. He also burned Tietjen’s eyes with cigarettes and lit candles around his body.

He pleaded guilty in 2008 and was sentenced to death for one of his murder counts. He will be the 50th person executed in South Carolina since the state restarted the death penalty in 1985 and the seventh inmate put to death in less than 14 months since the state was able to obtain a drug for lethal injection and reopen the death chamber after an unintentional 13-year pause.

Bryant is now required to choose a method of execution by Oct. 31.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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