Shot at Dawn! Execution by Shooting & Firing Squad

Military Traditions and Global Overview

In most countries, up until the 20th century, shooting was reserved for military personnel with civilians being executed by other methods, mostly hanging.

For some reason, shooting was considered a more honourable death for soldiers than hanging.

From the military perspective it had obvious advantages—the necessary personnel and equipment for a firing squad were always readily available.

Shooting became the standard form of execution in most Communist countries during the 20th century, and they are still the main users, even where they have abandoned Communism.

The former Russian states have now all but abolished the death penalty, although shooting executions were common up to the early 1990s, mostly by a single pistol shot to the back of the head or neck.

Shooting executions seem to be declining rapidly in the 21st century as the main user, China, moves increasingly to lethal injection.

The conventional firing squad is less and less used nowadays due to the difficulties in finding suitable volunteers and the expense of setting up a suitable place where people other than the prisoner will not be injured by flying bullets.

Shooting is a gruesome business, which is off-putting to the governments of democratic countries with a free press who do not wish to have the bad publicity that inevitably follows a gruesome or botched execution.

Countries Using Shooting in the 21st Century

Sixty-nine countries had shooting as a lawful method of execution up to 2000, either exclusively or for some classes of crime or criminal (e.g. military personnel were shot whilst civilians were hanged, as in Egypt).

Executions by this method are steadily declining, and countries such as China, Guatemala, and Thailand have moved to lethal injection.

The year 2017 saw at least 27 executions by shooting in six countries, although there were almost certainly unreported ones in China, North Korea, and Yemen.

Shooting was used in:

Bahrain (3)
Belarus (1)
Somalia (19)
United Arab Emirates (1)
Yemen (2)

Indonesia carried out no executions in 2017, having executed four people by firing squad for drug trafficking during 2016, down from 14 in 2015.

Four executions by shooting were carried out in Belarus for murder and another by the same method in Taiwan.

It is reported that Taiwan anaesthetises the prisoner prior to the executioner firing a single pistol shot to the head.

National Practices and Execution Methods

China

During the “Strike Hard” campaign against crime in China during the spring of 2001, Amnesty International recorded a staggering 1,781 executions.

This figure is greater than the total number of executions carried out in the rest of the world put together.

China does not publish statistics about the death penalty—these are a state secret.

Executions were often carried out immediately after a public sentencing rally, and the criminal’s family is made to pay for the bullet.

The prisoner’s arms are shackled behind them, and they are made to kneel down before receiving a single bullet fired at close range into the back of the head or neck by a soldier or policeman, or by a bullet fired into the heart from behind using an automatic rifle.

Chinese laws do not specifically state the site of execution grounds, and shootings are carried out at military target ranges, along river banks, and on remote hillsides, the prisoners being transported in open lorries from the sports stadiums where they were sentenced.

Condemned criminals are not executed inside prisons because it is regarded as inhumane for other inmates to hear the sound of gunfire.

In a typical mass public execution in December 1995, thirteen men and women convicted of murder and highway robbery were shot after the court dismissed their appeals.

Chinese television showed the nine men and four women being paraded at a sports stadium in front of a crowd of more than 10,000 before being taken to the execution ground on a nearby hillside.

Frequently, the kidneys, hearts, and corneas are removed from the dead prisoners and used in transplants at local hospitals.

“Execution is one of the indispensable means of education,” China’s paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, once said.

Iran

In the years following the 1979 revolution, Iran shot hundreds, if not thousands, of criminals, reaching a peak in the early 1980s.

Their crimes included murder, drug trafficking, adultery, prostitution, armed robbery, political violence, and religious offences.

Typically, those who were to be shot were lined up in groups seated on the ground along a wall and blindfolded.

They were each shot by a Revolutionary Guard standing in front of them using an automatic rifle.

Since then, Iranian executions have been conducted mostly by short drop hanging or crane suspension.

Nigeria

Nigerian law allows both hanging and shooting.

On Saturday, July 22nd, 1995, Nigeria executed 43 convicted armed robbers at the Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison in Lagos before a hushed crowd of around 1,000 people.

It was the largest number of executions in one day in Nigeria for decades and was intended to crack down on an upsurge in violent crime.

The prisoners, some of whom had been on death row for as long as 16 years, were tied to stakes at the Kirikiri shooting range before a 12-man firing squad of soldiers marched in from behind the prison walls and opened fire.

The soldiers, dressed in camouflage and with black shoe polish on their faces, used semi-automatic weapons to execute the convicts in three groups of 12 and one group of 7.

The executions began at 9:30 a.m. and ended at 11:00 a.m.

Three doctors, one a woman, certified the deaths, and an Irish Roman Catholic priest and a Muslim Imam witnessed them.

Armed robbers are frequently sentenced to be shot, and at one time in the northern state of Kaduna, the Military Governor thought that shooting gave the prisoner too quick a death and decided that their agony should be prolonged by ordering the firing squad to aim at the feet and legs and then progressively higher up with each volley until the prisoner died.

Somalia

Somalia executed 19 al-Shabab terrorists during 2017.

They were taken out into the desert, tied to stakes, and hooded, before being shot by six-man firing squads using what appear to be AK-47 assault rifles.

Thailand

Uniquely, Thailand used a single executioner with one stand-mounted machine gun per prisoner to put murderers and drug traffickers to death.

Over 500 people were shot in Thailand between 1937—when shooting replaced beheading—and October 2003, when Thailand moved to lethal injection as its sole method of execution.

All those sentenced to death there were held at Bang Kwang Central Prison, about 20 miles outside Bangkok.

The virtually soundproof execution chamber, known as the “Place to Relieve Suffering,” contained two wooden crosses and two stand-mounted Heckler & Koch 9mm machine guns.

Prisoners were confined in heavy leg irons from the time of sentence to the time of execution, which could be anything from a few weeks to a few years, and were told of their fate only hours before they were shot.

On the day of execution, the prisoner was taken from their cell, photographed, and fingerprinted.

They were then taken to the execution chamber and handcuffed to a cross-like wooden frame with their back to the machine gun, four meters behind them.

A white cloth blindfold is applied and the hands tied with a sacred Buddhist cord.

Flowers are hung from the prisoner’s hands as an offering to Buddha, and a canvas screen is pulled between the condemned and the gun.

A target is fixed onto the screen level with the prisoner’s heart, and the gun aimed at the centre of the target.

The executioner takes up his position, watching another member of the execution team who raises a red flag, and on the signal from the prison governor, the flag is dropped and the executioner fires a fully automatic burst of 15 rounds into the victim’s heart.

Fourteen men and one woman faced this death during 1999.

Only one execution was recorded in 2000. There were at least six in 2001, another six in 2002, and four in 2003.

Five men were shot on the 18th of April 2001, and the local media reported the preparations as follows:

At 5:30 p.m., Lee Yuang-kwang, a Hong Kong Chinese man convicted of drug trafficking, was taken to the execution chamber. He was blindfolded with a white cloth before being led into the chamber with his legs and hands shackled. He managed to smile and walked unaided.

About 20 minutes later, Boonkerd Jitpranee and Chu Chin-kuay were taken in. Chu appeared grim, his face ashen, while Boonkerd looked nonchalant.

They were followed 25 minutes later by the final pair, Vichien Saenmahayak and Romali Tayeh, who were shot at 6:38 p.m.

The short bursts of fire from the two machine guns were barely audible outside the chamber.

After each execution, the place was quickly cleaned up and the blood washed away to prepare for the next prisoners.

Through a glass door, a black cloth could be seen, blocking the view of the condemned.

The American State of Utah

Utah is the only state to have used the firing squad in recent times.

Only Utah and Idaho allow this method and will only use it again if the prisoner specifically elects it.

Three of Utah’s remaining condemned prisoners have indicated that they will choose this option.

Gary Mark Gilmore (1977)

On the 17th of January 1977, Gary Mark Gilmore became the first person to be executed in the U.S. in almost 10 years after putting up a strenuous campaign to be allowed to die.

He chose shooting. Under Utah law in force at the time, the condemned man had the choice of shooting by firing squad or hanging.

He was executed by five volunteer shooters in the old canning factory in the prison grounds using Winchester Model 94 lever-action repeating rifles loaded with Winchester Silver Tip 150-grain .30-30 caliber cartridges.

Only four of the rifles had live ammunition, the fifth containing a blank round so that the firing squad would not know who had fired the fatal shots.

He was tied to a chair and had a white target pinned over his heart.

After the death warrant had been read to him, he was asked if there was anything he wanted to say and uttered the famous line:

“Let’s do it.”

His execution renewed the capital punishment process in America and was graphically described in the Norman Mailer book and subsequent film The Executioner’s Song.

John Albert Taylor (1996)

Nineteen years later, John Taylor became the second person to suffer the same fate.

Taylor, 36, was convicted of the 1988 rape and strangulation of 11-year-old Charla King and was duly executed on the 26th of January 1996 at 12:03 a.m. Mountain Time.

One of the nine media witnesses, Paul Murphy of KTVX-TV Salt Lake, described the scene saying:

“we saw this very large man strapped to a chair. His eyes were darting back and forth”.

He was strapped to the chair by his hands and feet and lifted his chin for Warden Hank Galetka to secure a strap around his neck and place the black hood over his head.

At 12:03 a.m., on the count of three, the five riflemen standing 23 feet away fired at a white cloth target pinned over Taylor’s heart.

Blood darkened the chest area of his navy blue clothing, and four minutes later, a doctor pronounced him dead.

Very little blood spilled into the pan under the chair’s mesh seat.

As the volley hit him:

“Taylor’s hands squeezed up, went down, and came up and squeezed again. His chest was covered with blood.”

The prison doctor came in, cut holes in the hood, and examined Taylor’s pupils to verify he was dead.

Forensic Physiology of Death by Gunfire

Execution by shooting causes death through two distinct anatomical mechanisms:

Cardiac and Major Vessel Disruption (Firing Squad): When a volley of high-velocity rifle rounds penetrates the thoracic cavity, the projectiles tear through the ventricles of the heart, the ascending aorta, and pulmonary blood vessels. This produces immediate catastrophic hemorrhage and an instantaneous drop in blood pressure. The brain is starved of oxygenated perfusion, resulting in unconsciousness within seconds, with biological death following from hemorrhagic shock.
Brainstem and Cranial Destruction (Single Shot to Head): When a firearm is discharged into the occipital region (back of the head or nape of the neck), the bullet passes through the cerebellum, medulla oblongata, and brainstem. This destroys the respiratory and cardiac regulatory centres instantly, terminating life instantaneously without conscious perception of pain.

The firing squad represents one of the most rapid physical methods of execution when projectiles accurately strike the thoracic target, though the potential for psychological trauma to the firing team and ballistic accidents has led most modern nations to abandon the rifle in favor of alternative capital procedures.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why was execution by shooting historically considered an “honourable” death?

In military custom, shooting by firing squad was viewed as a soldier’s death, allowing the condemned serviceman to face the rifles of his peers without the criminal stigma associated with civil hanging at the gallows.

How does the firing squad operate in Utah?

In Utah, the condemned inmate is strapped to an iron chair backed by sandbags with a circular cloth target pinned over the heart. Five marksmen standing 23 feet away fire through a louvered wall using .30-30 caliber rifles, with one rifle randomly loaded with a blank round to preserve doubt over who fired the fatal shot.

How were executions carried out by machine gun in Thailand?

Between 1937 and 2003, Thailand executed prisoners inside Bang Kwang Prison by tethering them to a wooden upright cross behind a canvas screen. A single executioner then fired a 15-round burst from a stand-mounted 9mm Heckler & Koch submachine gun into the prisoner’s heart.

Why do some firing squads use a blank cartridge?

A blank cartridge is loaded into one randomly selected rifle so that each member of the firing squad may believe they did not fire a lethal round, easing the psychological burden on the individual shooters.

What is the primary cause of death in firing squad executions?

Death results from catastrophic thoracic hemorrhage and instantaneous loss of arterial blood pressure caused by multiple high-velocity bullets penetrating the heart, aorta, and lungs, depriving the brain of blood and causing unconsciousness within seconds.

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