Execution by firing squad Execution by firing squad , sometimes called fusillading ( 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 firearm s are usually readily available and a gunshot to a vital organ usually kills the subject relatively quickly . Before the introduction of firearms , bow s or crossbow s were often used — Saint Sebastian is usually depicted as executed by a squad of Roman auxiliary archers in around 288 AD ; King Edmund the Martyr of East Anglia , by some accounts , was tied to a tree and shot dead by Viking archer s on 20 November 869 or 870 AD . A firing squad is normally composed of several soldiers or law enforcement officer s . 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 " . 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 significance . The method is often the supreme punishment or disciplinary means employed by military courts for crimes such as cowardice , desertion , espionage , murder , mutiny , or treason . For military servicemen , the firing squad has a symbolic significance . The condemned soldier is executed by a group of his peers , indicating that he is found guilty by the entire group . Although a court - martial might be presided by and prosecuted by officers , the instruments of execution are the ordinary weapons fired by members of the group from which he is being expunged . Furthermore , in judicially approved executions , the condemned man is allowed to stand , rather than kneel ; in many cultures , the ability or the will to stand in the face of adversity or danger is considered a salient feature of individual pride . Finally , the group action on one side ( being the firing squad ) , with the condemned standing opposite , presents a visual contrast that reinforces to all witnesses that solidarity is an overriding necessity in a military unit . 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 . 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 — for this reason , it is sometimes referred to as the " conscience round " . However , it was a different story in the First World War . Private W . A . Quinton of 2nd Battalion , the Bedfordshire Regiment had the unfortunate experience of being a member of a firing squad in October 1915 . He recalled how he and eleven colleagues were relieved of any live ammunition and their own rifles , before being issued with replacement weapons . The firing squad was then given a short speech by an officer before they fired a volley at the condemned man . But " I had the satisfaction of knowing that as soon as I fired , the absence of any recoil , [ indicated ] that I had merely fired a blank cartridge " . 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 . By country . Belgium . On 1 April 1916 , Belgian woman Gabrielle Petit was executed by a German firing squad at Schaerbeek after being convicted of spying for the British Secret Service during World War I . During the Battle of the Bulge in World War II , three captured German spies were tried and executed by a U . S . firing squad at Henri - Chapelle on 23 December 1944 . Thirteen other Germans were also tried and shot at either Henri - Chapelle or Huy . These executed spies took part in Waffen - SS commando Otto Skorzeny ' s Operation Greif , in which English - speaking German commandos operated behind U . S . lines , masquerading in U . S . uniforms and equipment . Brazil . The Brazilian Constitution of 1988 expressly prohibits the usage of capital punishment by the penal justice system . However , death penalty may be applicable , by firing squad , according to international law , in case of a declared war , under the terms of Article 84 , paragraph 19 , of the Constitution . Cuba . Cuba , as part of its penal system , still utilizes death by firing squad . In January 1992 , a Cuban exile convicted of " terrorism , sabotage and enemy propaganda " was executed by firing squad . The Council of the State noted that the punishment served as a deterrent and stated that the death penalty " fulfills a goal of overall prevention , especially when the idea is to stop such loathsome actions from being repeated , to deter others and so to prevent innocent human lives from being endangered in the future . " During the Cuban Revolution , both sides employed death by firing squads . According to Humberto Fontova , a refugee from Castro ’ s Cuba , Che Guevara was responsible for hundreds of deaths by firing squad . Finland . The death penalty was widely used during and after the Finnish Civil War ( January – May 1918 ) ; some 9 , 700 Finns and an unknown number of Russian volunteers on the Red side were executed during the war or in its aftermath . 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 . During World War II , some 500 persons were executed , half of them condemned spies . The usual causes for death penalty for Finnish citizen s were treason and high treason ( and to a lesser extent cowardice and disobedience , applicable for military personnel ) . Almost all cases of capital punishment were tried 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 ( six murders ) . 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 . The death penalty was abolished by Finnish law in 1949 for crimes committed during peacetime , and in 1972 for all crimes . 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 . France . Private Thomas Highgate was the first British soldier to be convicted of desertion and executed by firing squad in September 1914 at Tournan - en - Brie during World War I . In October 1916 , Private Harry Farr was shot for cowardice at Carnoy , which was later suspected to be acoustic shock . Highgate and Farr , along with 304 other British and Imperial troops who were executed for similar offenses , were listed at the Shot at Dawn Memorial which was erected to honor them . On 15 October 1917 , Dutch exotic dancer Mata Hari was executed by a French firing squad at Château de Vincennes castle in the town of Vincennes under charges of espionage for Germany during World War I . During World War II , on 24 September 1944 , Josef Wende and Stephan Kortas , two Poles drafted into the German Army , entered across the Moselle Rivers behind U . S . lines in civilian clothes , posing as Polish slave laborers , to observe Allied strength and were to rejoin their own army on the same day . However , they were discovered by the Americans and captured . On 18 October 1944 , Wende and Kortas were found guilty of espionage by a U . S . military commission and sentenced to death . On 11 November 1944 , they were shot in the garden of a farmhouse at Toul . The footage of Wende ' s execution as well as Kortas are shown in these links . On 15 October 1945 , Pierre Laval , the puppet leader of Nazi - occupied Vichy France , was executed by firing squad at Fresnes Prison in Paris for treason against France . 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 . Five months later , three men convicted for the 2002 Bali bombing — Amrozi , Imam Samudra , and Ali Ghufron — were executed on the same spot in Nusakambangan . In January 2013 , a British woman of 56 years old was sentenced to execution by firing squad for importing a large amount of cocaine ; she lost her appeal against her sentence in April 2013 . Ireland . Following the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland , 15 of the 16 patriot leaders were shot by British military authorities under martial law . The executions have often been cited as a reason for how the patriots managed to galvanise public support in Ireland after their failed rebellion . Israel . During the Jordanian Siege of Jerusalem during the 1948 Arab - Israeli War , the accurate Jordanian shelling of Israeli positions led to suspicions 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 and 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 . Italy . Italy had used the firing squad as its only form of death penalty , both for civilians and military , since the unification of the country in 1861 . The death penalty was abolished completely by both Italian Houses of Parliament in 1889 but revived under the Italian dictatorship of Benito Mussolini in 1926 . On 1 December 1945 , Anton Dostler , the first German general to be tried for war crimes , was executed by a U . S . firing squad in Aversa after being found guilty by a U . S . military tribunal for ordering the killing of 15 U . S . prisoners of war in Italy during World War II . The last execution took place on 4 March 1947 , as Francesco La Barbera , Giovanni Puleo and Giovanni D ' Ignoti , sentenced to death on multiple accounts of robbery and murder , faced the firing squad at the range of Basse di Stura , near Turin . Soon after the Constitution of the newly proclaimed Republic prohibited the death penalty except for some crimes , like high treason , during wartime ; no one was sentenced to death after 1947 . In 2007 , the Constitution was amended to ban the death penalty altogether . Mexico . During the Mexican Independence War , several Independentist generals ( such as Miguel Hidalgo and José María Morelos ) were executed by Spanish firing squads . 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 . 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 carry out a death sentence in Mexico , especially during the Mexican Revolution and the Cristero War . After these events , the death sentence was reduced to some events in Article 22 of the Mexican Constitution ; however , in 1917 capital punishment was abolished completely . Netherlands . During World War II , some 3 , 000 persons were executed by German firing squads . The victims were sometimes sentenced by a military court ; in other cases the victims were hostages or arbitrary people passing by who were executed publicly to intimidate the population and as reprisals against the resistance movements . After the attack on high - ranking German officer Rauter , about 300 persons were executed publicly as reprisal . On 13 May 1945 , five days after the capitulation of Adolf Hitler ' s Wehrmacht , a German firing squad executed two of their Navy sailors on the wall of an air raid shelter near the factory in Amsterdam for desertion . At the time , the execution was supervised and under Canadian control in Amsterdam . Anton Mussert , a Dutch Nazi leader , was sentenced to death by firing squad and executed in the dunes near The Hague on 7 May 1946 . Norway . Vidkun Quisling , the leader of the collaborationist 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 24 October 1945 , at the Akershus Fortress . Philippines . Jose Rizal was executed by firing squad on the morning of 30 December 1896 , in what is now Luneta Park , where his remains have since been placed . During the Marcos administration , drug trafficking was punishable by firing - squad execution , as was done to Lim Seng . Execution by firing squad was later replaced by lethal injection . By 24 June 2006 , President Gloria Macapagal - Arroyo abolished capital punishment by Republic Act 9346 . Existing death row inmates , who numbered in the thousands , were eventually given life sentences or reclusion perpetua instead . South Africa . Australian soldiers Harry " Breaker " Morant and Peter Handcock were executed by a British firing squad in the South African Republic on 27 February 1902 , for war crimes during the Second Boer War ; questions have since been raised in Australia as to whether they received a fair trial . Syria . Both sides in the ongoing Syrian civil war have employed firing squads . In January 2013 , a Syrian civilian described how he narrowly survived a firing squad assembled by armed Assad supporters that resulted in the deaths of some 20 people . United Arab Emirates . In the United Arab Emirates , firing squad is the preferred method of execution . United Kingdom . Execution by firing squad in the United Kingdom was limited to times of war , armed insurrection and within the military , although it is now outlawed in all circumstances , along with all other forms of capital punishment . 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 on British soil during the First World War were buried in East London Cemetery , in Plaistow , London . On 15 August 1941 , German Cpl . Josef Jakobs was shot for espionage during World War II . When the U . S . Army took over Shepton Mallet prison in Somerset in 1942 , renaming it Disciplinary Training Center No . 1 and housing troops convicted of offences across Europe , 2 men were executed by firing squad for murder ; Private Alexander Miranda on 30 May 1944 and Private Benjamin Pigate on 28 November 1944 . Locals complained about the noise , as the executions took place in the open air at 1am . Since the 1960s , there has been some controversy concerning the 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 World War I , 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 . The Shot at Dawn Memorial was erected at Staffordshire to honour these soldiers . United States . According to Espy and Smylka , 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 . On 15 May 1863 , two Confederate spies were executed by a Union firing squad on the beach at Johnson ' s Island in Lake Erie , the site of a Union prisoner - of - war camp for captured Confederate officers . On 14 May 1913 , Andriza Mircovich became the first and only inmate in Nevada to be executed by shooting . After the warden of Nevada State Prison was unable to find five men to form a firing squad , a shooting machine was built to carry out Mircovich ' s execution . On 31 October 1938 , John Deering volunteered to have himself hooked up to an electrocardiogram while he was shot by a firing squad to observe the effect of gunshot wounds to the heart . On 30 March 1960 , the execution of James W . Rodgers in Utah became the last to be carried out by firing squad in the United States before a de facto national moratorium on capital punishment was enacted with the U . S . Supreme Court decision of " Furman v . Georgia " . Capital punishment was suspended in the United States from 1972 to 1976 , when the case of " Gregg v . Georgia " reversed the U . S . Supreme Court ' s previous decision . Since then , there have been three executions by firing squad , all in Utah : Idaho banned execution by firing squad in a law which took effect on 1 July 2009 . This left Oklahoma as the only state left in the United States that utilizes this method of execution ( and only as a secondary method ) . On 11 October 2011 , Florida State Representative Brad Drake sponsored a bill to give Florida death row inmates the option of death by firing squad . In the U . S . military , firing squads have been replaced by lethal injection as the only approved method for the judicial execution of U . S . military personnel .