South Carolina’s Supreme Court issued a death warrant Friday for a convicted killer who taunted police by writing “catch me if u can” in his victim’s blood, making him the seventh inmate scheduled for execution since the state resumed capital punishment last year.
Stephen Bryant, 44, will face execution Nov. 14 for the 2004 murder of Willard “TJ” Tietjen. The court rejected a delay request from Bryant’s lawyers, who cited complications from the federal government shutdown, Fox News reported.
Bryant confessed to shooting Tietjen multiple times after stopping at his rural Sumter County home claiming car trouble. He lit candles around the body and used a blood-soaked potholder to write “victem 4 in 2 weeks. catch me if u can” [sic] on a wall. (RELATED: Death Penalty Hearing For Iryna Zarutska’s Alleged Murderer Delayed)
When Tietjen’s daughter called her father’s phone, Bryant answered. “And he said, ‘You can’t, I killed him.’ And I said, ‘This isn’t funny, who are you?’ He said, ‘I’m the prowler,’” Kimberly Dees testified.
SCDC received an order of execution today for Death Row inmate Stephen Corey Bryant. By law, the execution will be set for Nov. 14. Details: https://t.co/bWLvFWzpA2 pic.twitter.com/mi3r0byFPX
— S.C. Department of Corrections (@SCDCNews) October 17, 2025
Prosecutors said Bryant also killed two other men in October 2004, shooting them as they urinated on roadside stops.
Bryant must choose his execution method by Oct. 31: lethal injection, firing squad or electric chair, according to Fox News. Since South Carolina ended a 13-year execution pause in September 2024, four inmates selected lethal injection and two chose firing squad.
The state halted executions in 2011 after its lethal injection drug supply expired. Lawmakers later passed a shield law protecting drug suppliers’ identities and added firing squad as an option.
Bryant becomes the 50th person executed in South Carolina since the death penalty resumed in 1985.
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