Execution by firing squad

Serbian prisoners of war are arranged in a semi circle and executed by an Austrian firing squad, 1917 (World War I)

The Third of May by Francisco Goya

Execution by firing squad, sometimes called fusilading (from the French fusil, rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war.

Execution by shooting is a fairly old practice. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are usually readily available and a gunshot to a vital organ usually kills the prisoner relatively quickly. Before the introduction of firearms, bows or crossbows were often used — Saint Sebastian is usually depicted as executed by a squad of Roman auxiliary archers.

A firing squad is usually composed of several soldiers or law enforcement officers. Usually, all members of the group are instructed to fire simultaneously, thus preventing both disruption of the process by a single member and identification of the member who fired the lethal shot. The prisoner is typically blindfolded or hooded, as well as restrained, although in some cases prisoners have asked to be allowed to face the firing squad without their eyes covered. Executions can be carried out with the condemned either standing or sitting. There is a tradition in some jurisdictions that such executions are carried out at first light, or at sunrise, which is usually up to half an hour later. This gave rise to the phrase "shot at dawn", which has become particularly associated with the campaign (see below) to achieve a pardon for British servicemen shot after being convicted of cowardice in World War I.

Execution by firing squad is distinct from other forms of execution by firearms, such as an execution by a single firearm to the back of the head or neck. However, the single shot (coup de grâce) is sometimes incorporated in a firing squad execution, particularly if the initial volley turns out not to be immediately fatal.

Military and political motivations

The method is often the supreme punishment or disciplinary means employed by military courts martial for crimes such as cowardice, desertion or mutiny. One such execution was that of Private Eddie Slovik by the U.S. Army in 1945. Slovik was the only U.S. soldier executed for desertion since the American Civil War. It has also been applied for violent crimes carried out by soldiers, such as murder or rape. Also notably, Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry was executed by firing squad for his participation in the assassination attempt on French President Charles de Gaulle.

Firing squads have also been used as the punishment for political crimes. Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu's execution on December 25, 1989 is an example of this.

Blank cartridge

In some cases, one or more members of the firing squad may be issued a weapon containing a blank cartridge instead of one housing a live round.^[1] No member of the firing squad is told beforehand if he is using live ammunition. This is believed to reinforce the sense of diffusion of responsibility among the firing squad members, making the execution process more reliable. It also allows each member of the firing squad to believe afterward that he did not personally fire a fatal shot^[2] - for this reason, it is sometimes referred to as the "conscience round". While an experienced marksman can tell the difference between a blank and a live cartridge based on the recoil (the blank will have lower recoil), there is a psychological incentive to not pay attention and, over time, to remember the recoil as soft. In more recent times, such as in the execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner in Utah in the United States in 2010, a rifleman may be given a "dummy" cartridge containing wax instead of a bullet, which provides a more realistic recoil.^[3]

By country

Finland

Soviet infiltrator being shot during the Continuation War.

The death penalty was widely used during and after the Finnish Civil War; some 9,700 Finns and an unknown number of Russian volunteers on the red side were executed during the war or its aftermath.^[4] Most executions were carried out by firing squads after the sentences were given by illegal or semi-legal courts martial. Only some 250 persons were sentenced to death in courts acting on legal authority.^[5]

During World War II, some 500 persons were executed, half of them condemned spies. The usual causes for death penalty for Finnish citizens were treason and high treason (and to a lesser extent cowardice and disobedience, applicable for military personnel). Almost all cases of capital punishment were carried out by court martial. Usually, the executions were carried out by the regimental military police platoon, or in the case of spies, by the local military police. One Finn, Toivo Koljonen, was executed for a civilian crime (sextuple murder). Most executions occurred in 1941, and during the Soviet Summer Offensive in 1944. The last death sentences were given in 1945 for murder, but later commuted to life imprisonment.^[5]

The death penalty was abolished by Finnish law in 1949 for crimes committed during peacetime, and in 1972 for all crimes.^[6] Finland is party to the Optional protocol of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, forbidding the use of the death penalty in all circumstances.^[7]

Indonesia

Execution by firing squad is the common capital punishment method used in Indonesia. Fabianus Tibo, Dominggus da Silva, and Marinus Riwu were executed in 2006. Nigerian drug smugglers Samuel Iwachekwu Okoye and Hansen Anthoni Nwaolisa were executed in June 2008 in Nusakambangan Island.^[8] Five months afterwards, three men convicted for the 2002 Bali bombing, Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Ali Ghufron were executed on the same spot in Nusakambangan on November 2008.^[9]

Ireland

Following the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland, 15 of the 16 rebel leaders were shot by the British military authorities under martial law. The executions have often been cited as a reason for how the rebels managed to galvanise public support in Ireland after their failed rebellion.^[10]

Israel

During the Jordanian Siege of Jerusalem during 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the accurate Jordanian shelling of Israeli positions led to suspicion that a spy was operating. Meir Tobianski, a worker for the Israel Electric Corporation, was suspected since he knew the exact locations of several Israeli arms manufacturers, all of which received direct hits from Jordanian artillery. Tobianski was arrested at the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv. Orders to detain him for ten days were ignored, and he was instead interrogated and tried before a Drumhead court-martial. Tobianski was found guilty, executed by a six-man firing squad. After an investigation, Tobianski was posthumously acquitted and reburied at Mount Herzl. Isser Be'eri, the officer who had ordered his execution and organized the firing squad, was tried for manslaughter. He was found guilty but pardoned by President Chaim Weizmann.^[11]

Mexico

During the Mexican Independence War, several Independentist generals (such as Miguel Hidalgo and José María Morelos) were executed by Spanish firing squads.^[12] Also, Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico and several of his generals were executed in the Cerro de las Campanas after the Juaristas took control of Mexico in 1867.^[13] Manet immortalized the execution in a now-famous painting, The Execution of Emperor Maximilian; he painted at least three versions.

Firing squad execution was the most common way to execute a death sentence in Mexico, especially during the Mexican Revolution and the Cristero War.^[14] After these events, the death sentence was reduced to some events in Article 22 of the Mexican Constitution; however, on June 18, 2008 capital punishment was abolished completely.^[15]

Netherlands

Anton Mussert, a Dutch Nazi leader, was sentenced to death by firing squad and executed in the dunes near The Hague on May 7, 1946^[16].

Norway

Vidkun Quisling, the leader of Nasjonal Samling Party and of Norway during the German occupation in World War II, was sentenced to death by firing squad for treason and executed on October 24. 1945, at the Akershus Fortress.^[17]

Philippines

Jose Rizal was executed by firing squad on the morning of December 30, 1896, in what is now the Luneta Park where his remains were since placed.^[18]

During the Marcos administration, drug trafficking was punishable by firing squad, as was done to Lim Seng. Execution by firing squad was later replaced by lethal injection. By June 24, 2006, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo abolished capital punishment by Republic Act 9346. Existing death row inmates, which totalled in the thousands, were eventually given life sentences or reclusion perpetua instead.^[19]

United Arab Emirates

In the United Arab Emirates, firing squad is the preferred method of execution.^[20]

United Kingdom

Execution by firing squad in the United Kingdom was limited to times of war, armed insurrection, and within the military, although is now outlawed in all circumstances, along with all other forms of capital punishment.

Australian soldiers Harry "Breaker" Morant and Peter Handcock were shot by a British firing squad (in South Africa) on February 27, 1902, for alleged war crimes during the Boer War; many questions have since been raised as to whether they received a fair trial^[21]. Morant's (now famous) final words were "Shoot straight, you bastards! Don't make a mess of it!"^[22].

The Tower of London was used during both World Wars for executions: during World War I, 11 captured German spies were shot between 1914 and 1916. All spies executed during the First World War were buried in East London Cemetery, in Plaistow, London.^[23] On August 15, 1941, German Corporal Josef Jakobs was shot for espionage during World War II. Private Thomas Highgate was the first British soldier to be convicted of desertion and then executed by firing squad during the First World War. Particularly since the 1960s, there has been some controversy concerning 346 British and Imperial troops — including 25 Canadians, 22 Irish and 5 New Zealanders — who were shot for desertion, murder, cowardice and other offences during the war, some of whom are now thought to have been suffering from combat stress reaction or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ("shell-shock", as it was then known). This led to organisations such as the Shot at Dawn Campaign being set up in later years to try to uncover just why these soldiers were executed.^[24][25] The Shot at Dawn Memorial was erected to honor these soldiers.

United States

According to Espy and Smylka^[26] it is estimated that 142 men have been judicially shot in the United States and English-speaking predecessor territories since 1608, excluding executions related to the American Civil War. The Civil War saw several hundred firing squad deaths, but reliable numbers are not available.

Capital punishment was suspended in the United States between 1972 and 1976, as a result of several decisions of the United States Supreme Court (Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238). Since then, there have been three executions by firing squad, all in Utah:

1. Gary Gilmore was executed on January 17, 1977, at Utah State Prison in Draper. In Utah, firing squads consist of five volunteer law enforcement officers ^[27][28] from the county in which the conviction of the offender took place. The five executioners were equipped with .30-30 caliber rifles and off the shelf Winchester 150 grain (9.7 g) SilverTip ammunition. The condemned was restrained and hooded, and the shots were fired at a distance of 20 feet (6 m), aiming at the chest. According to his brother Mikal Gilmore's memoir Shot in the Heart, Utah's tradition dictated that a firing squad comprise four men with live rounds, and one with a blank round, so that each of the shooters could cast doubt to having fired a fatal shot. However, upon inspecting the clothes worn by Gary Gilmore at his execution, Mikal noted five holes in the shirt — indicating, he wrote, that "the state of Utah, apparently, had taken no chances on the morning that it put my brother to death."
2. John Albert Taylor was executed in 1996. Taylor reportedly chose this method of execution, in the words of the New York Times, "to make a statement that Utah was sanctioning murder."^[29] However, an article for the British newspaper The Times, written fourteen years after his execution, quotes Taylor justifying his choice because he did not want to "flop around like a dying fish" during lethal injection.^[30] A law passed on March 15, 2004 banned execution by firing squad in Utah, but since that specific law was not retroactive,^[31] four inmates on Utah's death row (one, Roberto Arguelles, died of natural causes while on death row) could still opt for execution by firing squad.
3. Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by five anonymous officers on June 18, 2010. Gardner chose firing squad because he believed it is swifter and more humane and less likely to become botched than lethal injection.

Idaho banned execution by firing squad in a law which took effect on July 1, 2009.^[32]

See also

• Execution by shooting
• Court-martial
• Shot at Dawn Memorial
• Use of death penalty worldwide
• Harry Farr

References

Further reading

• Moore, William, The Thin Yellow Line, Wordsworth Editions Ltd, 1974
• Putkowski and Sykes, Shot at Dawn, Leo Cooper, 2006

External links

• Firing Squad Execution of a Civil War Deserter Described in an 1861 Newspaper
• The Shot At Dawn Campaign with biographies of executed British and Commonwealth soldiers
• Death by Firing Squad - slideshow by The First Post