Are Firing Squad Executions Making a Comeback in the U.S.?

For many years, lethal injection has been the most common way the death penalty is carried out in the United States. It uses drugs to end a person's life. But problems with this method have pushed leaders in several states, and President Donald Trump, to look at older alternatives. One option getting a lot of attention is the firing squad, in which trained shooters fire rifles at the person being executed.

The push for change grew louder after a failed execution in Tennessee. A woman named Christa Pike was supposed to be executed by lethal injection, but the attempt did not work — the second time this year that the state had a problem with that method. She complained that her arms were burning, and her lawyers believed she was brain dead before she woke up the next day. By Thursday, she was reportedly up and walking.

Tennessee lawmakers quickly spoke out after the failed attempt. Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson said the state needs to use something 'far more reliable and predictable.' House Speaker Cameron Sexton said no method is off the table. Both he and Republican Rep. Tim Burchett named the firing squad as a possible option.

President Trump also made a big move this week. He approved the use of a firing squad to execute Nidal Hasan, a former U.S. Army major who killed 13 people in a mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. The execution is planned for December 3 and will be livestreamed, according to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Some states have already made changes. Last year, South Carolina carried out three executions by firing squad. Idaho passed a law this year making the firing squad its main method of execution. Both states made these changes after botched lethal injections.

Five states now allow firing squad executions: Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah. Idaho is the only state where the firing squad is the top choice. In the other four, it is used as a backup or as one of several options.

So how does a firing squad execution work? The person is strapped to a chair, a hood is placed over their head, and a target marks their heart. Between three and five shooters with powerful rifles then fire at the same time. In some states, one rifle has a blank bullet so no one knows who fired the fatal shot.

Lethal injection has caused problems partly because key drugs became hard to get. The drug sodium thiopental stopped being made in 2011, and states had to find replacements. Pharmaceutical companies have refused to sell their drugs for executions, making the problem even worse. Many states switched to a drug called pentobarbital, but experts say it is less reliable.

Research shows lethal injection has the highest rate of botched attempts among execution methods. Professor Austin Sarat of Amherst College found that more than 7% of lethal injections between 1890 and 2010 went wrong. In a follow-up study from 2010 to 2020, the rate rose above 8%. By comparison, out of 34 firing squad executions studied, not one went significantly wrong.

Despite the renewed interest in firing squads, Professor Sarat says the overall trend is moving away from the death penalty. Twenty-three states have banned it entirely, and 10 more have not carried out an execution in the past decade. 'The United States is on the road to abolition ... The death penalty is dying,' Sarat says. He does not believe recent events will greatly change that bigger picture.