Death by firing squad, also known as fusillading in the past, is a method of capital punishment that was popular in the military and during times of war. Some reasons for its utilisation include the fact that firearms are usually easily available, and a bullet to a crucial organ, such as the brain or heart, will usually kill very rapidly.

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A firing squad is typically made up of multiple military men who are all directed to shoot at the same time, preventing both disturbances of the procedure and identification of who fired the killing shot.

To avoid disfigurement from several head hits, shooters are often encouraged to aim for the heart, which is occasionally facilitated by a paper or fabric target.

The prisoner is normally blindfolded or hooded, as well as restrained, though, on some occasions, convicts have requested to be allowed to face the firing squad with their eyes open.

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In media depictions, the condemned are frequently offered a final cigarette. Executions can take place with the condemned standing or sitting. Some governments have a tradition of carrying out such executions at first light or sunrise. As a result, the expression “shot at dawn” was coined.

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Execution by firing squad differs from other types of firearms execution, such as execution by shooting to the back of the head or neck. However, a single shot with a handgun by the squad’s officer is often included in a firing squad execution, especially if the opening round is not immediately deadly.

Bows or crossbows were frequently used before the introduction of firearms—Saint Sebastian is usually depicted as being executed by a squad of Roman auxiliary archers in around AD 288; King Edmund the Martyr of East Anglia, according to some accounts, was tied to a tree and executed by Viking archers on 20 November 869 or 870.

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For crimes such as cowardice, desertion, espionage, murder, mutiny, or treason, the method is frequently the death penalty or disciplinary measures used by military courts.

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According to court documents filed on April 15, a South Carolina man who was due to become the state’s first prisoner to be executed in more than a decade has decided to die by firing squad rather than the electric chair.

The latest firing squad execution in the United States occurred in 2010 when Ronnie Lee Gardner was shot in Utah by a five-man firing squad. Prior to then, only two other firing squad executions have occurred in the United States since 1976.