The US is scheduled to put the first person to death by firing squad for the first time in 15 years. Brad Sigmon, who was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 2001, will face a firing squad as he chose the method over electric chair and lethal injection.
Firing squad has remained as a method of execution in five American states-Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah-if the lethal injection cannot be performed. Only three inmates in the US have been executed by firing squad since 1976, all in the state of Utah. Earlier in 2010, Ronnie Gardner was executed using the method in Utah.
Sigmon was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents at their home in Greenville County in 2001. Police said that the victims were in separate rooms and Sigmon went back and forth as he beat them to death. He then kidnapped his ex-girlfriend at gunpoint and shot at her when she escaped from his car.
What Is Killing By Firing Squad?
In this method of execution, the prisoner is bound to a chair using a leather strap across his waist and head, in front of an oval-shaped wall, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
The chair is surrounded by sandbags to absorb the blood. A black hood is pulled over the inmate’s head and a doctor locates the inmate’s heart with a stethoscope and pins a circular white cloth target over it.
Five shooters, armed with .30 caliber rifles, stand 20 feet away. Each of the shooters aims his rifle through a slot in a canvas between them and the prisoner and fires at the prisoner.
The prisoner dies due to blood loss due to the rupture of the heart or tearing of the lungs.
A Look At Firing Squads In The US
Though the history of the firing squads in the US dates back to the colonial times, Utah became the primary state to use the firing squads in the 19th and 20th century with at least 40 executions using this method.
According to a report in the Associated Press, the US executed at least 144 civilian prisoners by shooting since 1608, nearly all in Utah.
The US generally use lethal injection as the most commonly used execution method. Apart from lethal injection and firing squad, the US has used gas chambers, hanging and electrocution as methods of execution.
