Firing Squads Are Back

In brief

The use of firing squads for executions has returned in the United States, according to a report by Ethan Bauer for Commonweal.

The report highlights the 2010 execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner in Draper, Utah, who chose a firing squad over lethal injection. Gardner was the first person executed by firing squad in the country since 1996 and only the third since 1976. During the execution, a witness for the Salt Lake Tribune described the process as violent but noted it appeared clinical and sterile.