The Supreme Court of South Carolina has issued a death penalty order for Stephen Bryant (44), who killed a man over 20 years ago, burned his eyes with cigarettes, and then wrote on the wall in the victim’s blood: "Catch me if you can."

The sentence is scheduled to be carried out on November 14, after the U.S. Supreme Court declined this week to review Bryant’s appeal against the death penalty and his lawyers’ request to delay the execution due to the federal government shutdown.

Although Bryant was convicted of a single murder, prosecutors said he killed two other men during weeks of terror in the area in October 2004, shooting them while giving them rides as they stopped on the side of rural roads.

Bryant will be the 50th person sentenced to death in South Carolina since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1985. He is also the seventh person to be executed in less than 14 months after executions resumed following a 13-year pause due to a shortage of lethal injection drugs.

Bryant has until October 31 to choose his method of death: lethal injection, firing squad, or the electric chair. Since executions resumed, four inmates have chosen lethal injection, while two were executed by firing squad

.In the U.S. overall, 38 people have been executed so far in 2025, with five more executions scheduled before the end of the year

Crime Details

Bryant admitted to killing Willard "TJ" Tietjen at his isolated home in Sumter County after claiming his car had broken down. He shot Tietjen multiple times, lit candles around his body, then dipped a pot holder (made by the victim’s daughter as a child) in the victim’s blood and wrote on the wall:Victim 4 in 2 weeks. Catch me if you can

:Tietjen’s daughter tried calling him repeatedly without success. On her sixth call, a stranger answered and told her

".You can’t speak to him. I killed him. I am the prowler"

Personal Motives and Drug Use

Bryant’s lawyers said he suffered from psychological distress before the murders and sought help because he could not stop reliving memories of sexual abuse by four male relatives during his childhood. According to his aunt’s testimony, he experienced “inner torment” and seemed to be “reliving the experience over again.

.The defense also stated that Bryant attempted to cope with his pain by using methamphetamine and smoking cigarettes sprayed with insecticide