Firing squad
A firing squad is a group of people with guns who shoot and kill a criminal who has been sentenced to death penalty. The person being shot is often blindfolded. This method of execution has often been used in the military for crimes such as desertion and cowardice.
Few countries use firing squads anymore. Many countries have either stopped using the death penalty or switched to using lethal injection. For example, in the United States, the state of Utah formerly used firing squads, but it now uses lethal injection. However, some countries, such as Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates, still use firing squads. As of 2014, 73 countries still use execution by firing squad, and is the sole method of execution in 45 different countries.
Firing Squad Media
Serbian civilian prisoners arranged in a semi-circle, executed by an Austro-Hungarian firing squad in World War I
Execution by Austria-Hungary of Czech leaders of a mutiny against their superior officers, 1918
Mass execution of 56 Polish citizens in Bochnia, near Kraków, following the Nazi invasion of Poland, December 18, 1939
A communist insurgent is blindfolded and executed by firing squad, Cuba 1956.
Two Red Guard members in front of a firing squad in Varkaus after the 1918 Finnish Civil War
Execution of a Soviet infiltrator by a Finnish firing squad during the Continuation War, 1941–1944
Execution of the Madrid rebels by a French firing squad on the Third of May 1808, as painted by Francisco Goya
Execution at Verdun at the time of the French Army Mutinies of 1917