page_title: Execution
section_title: Other ways of execution
hierarchical_section_title: Execution / Other ways of execution
context_page_description: Execution is where state authorities kill someone for having committed an extremely serious crime, usually treason or especially terrible murders. In most countries where the death penalty is still provided for by law, using it is an option available to the sentencing judge: even if the jury or judicial panel recommends the death penalty, the presiding judge still has the option to lock the convicted person in a prison for the rest of their life.
context_section_description: Many countries do not allow executions as punishment any more, because it is too violent.  However, many states of the United States and some other foreign countries allow it.  Even in the United States, less violent ways of execution have had to be used.  Here are some other ways of execution other than hanging
  Lethal injection:  Killing a person by placing several poisons in their blood.  This is used as the choice of execution in most U.S. states that allow executions.
  Gas chamber: A person is placed in area where the air is filled with bad gases until he cannot breathe and dies.  This method was used for executions in some U.S. states, and for mass murder by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
  Electrocution: Killing a person by placing them in an electric chair and giving them a very high electric shock.
  Firing Squad:  Several people shoot and kill a person.  Armies around the world have long used this method, since guns and bullets are readily available.  Firing squad was the lawful means of execution in Finland until 1944, when death penalty was abolished (stopped by the law).  It was also used in the state of Utah in the 20th century.  In most cases, not all the shooters have real bullets.  After the execution, it is not possible to determine which of the people firing killed the person just executed.
caption: The Execution of Emperor Maximilan of Mexico is a painting by Edouard Manet. It shows a firing squad.
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