Execution by firing squad, historically called fusillading (from the French , rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are usually readily available and a gunshot to a vital organ, such as the brain or heart, most often will kill relatively quickly.
Procedure A firing squad is normally composed of several shooters, all of whom are usually instructed to fire simultaneously, thus preventing both disruption of the process by one member and identification of who fired the lethal shot. To avoid disfigurement due to multiple shots to the head, the shooters are typically instructed to aim at the heart, sometimes aided by a paper or cloth target. The prisoner is typically blindfolded or hooded as well as restrained. 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, giving rise to the phrase "shot at dawn".
Associated Press writer Jeffrey Collins described the execution by firing squad of a murderer, Brad Sigmon, in 2025 as follows:
"Mr. Sigmon’s lawyer read his final statement. The hood was put over Mr. Sigmon’s head, and an employee opened the black pull shade that shielded where the three prison-system volunteer shooters were. About two minutes later, they fired. There was no warning or countdown. The abrupt crack of the rifles startled me. And the white target with the red bull’s-eye that had been on his chest, standing out against his black prison jumpsuit, disappeared instantly as Mr. Sigmon’s whole body flinched. A jagged red spot about the size of a small fist appeared where Mr. Sigmon was shot. His chest moved two or three times. Outside of the rifle crack, there was no sound. A doctor came out in less than a minute, and his examination took about a minute more. Mr. Sigmon was declared dead at 6:08 p.m."
Execution by firing squad is a specific practice that is distinct from other forms of execution by firearms, such as an execution by shot(s) to the back of the head or neck. However, the single shot to the brain by the squad's officer with a pistol at point blank (coup de grâce) is sometimes incorporated in a firing squad execution, particularly if the initial volley turns out not to be immediately fatal. Before the introduction of firearms, bows or crossbows were often used—Saint Sebastian is usually depicted as executed by a squad of Roman auxiliary archers in around AD 288; King Edmund the Martyr of East Anglia, by some accounts, was tied to a tree and executed by Viking archers on 20 November 869 or 870.
Sometimes, one or more of the members of the firing squad may be issued a rifle containing a blank cartridge. In such cases, the shooters are not told beforehand whether they are using live or blank ammunition. This is believed to reinforce the sense of diffusion of responsibility among the firing squad members. It provides each member with a measure of plausible deniability that they, personally, did not fire a bullet at all. In practice however, firing a live round produces significant recoil, while firing a blank round does not. Gas-operated actions such as recoil depend on a high pressure state that only exists when the gas is trapped between the breech and the moving projectile. As there is no bullet in the blank, the recoil is greatly reduced. In more modern times such as during the 2010 execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner in Utah, US, one rifleman may be given a "dummy" cartridge containing a wax bullet, which provides a more realistic recoil.
Military significance
The method is often the capital punishment or disciplinary means employed by military courts for crimes such as cowardice, desertion, espionage, murder, mutiny, or treason.
If the condemned prisoner is an ex-officer who is acknowledged to have shown bravery throughout their career, they may be afforded the privilege of giving the order to fire. Cases of this are the executions of French Marshals Michel Ney and Joachim Murat. As a means of insulting the condemned, however, past executions have had them shot in the back, denied blindfolds, or even tied to chairs. When Galeazzo Ciano, son-in-law of Benito Mussolini, and several other former fascists who voted to remove Mussolini from power were executed, they were tied to chairs facing away from their executioners. By some reports, Ciano managed to twist his chair around at the last second to face them, but this is unconfirmed.
By country Andorra
On 18 October 1943, Pere Areny was publicly executed by firing squad in Canillo, Andorra, for the murder of his half-brother two months earlier. Areny became the last person to be put to death by Andorra. The case attracted local controversy over Areny's fast-track trial and the omission of his mental health problems as a mitigating factor.
Argentina
Manuel Dorrego, a prominent Argentine statesman and soldier who governed Buenos Aires in the 1820s, was executed by firing squad on 12 December 1828 after being defeated in battle by Juan Lavalle and later convicted of treason.
Belgium
On 12 October 1915 British nurse Edith Cavell was executed by a German firing squad at the Tir national shooting range at Schaerbeek, after being convicted of "conveying troops to the enemy" during the First World War.
On 1 April 1916 a 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.Pallud, p. 15 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 in peacetime, but authorizes the use of the death penalty for military crimes committed during wartime. War must be declared formally, in accordance with international law and article 84, item 19 of the Federal Constitution, with due authorization from the Brazilian Congress. The Brazilian Code of Military Penal Law, in its chapter dealing with wartime offences, specifies the crimes that are subject to the death penalty. The death penalty is never the only possible sentence for a crime, and the punishment must be imposed by the military courts system. Per the norms of the Brazilian Code of Military Penal Procedure, the death penalty is carried out by firing squad.
Although Brazil still permits the use of capital punishment during wartime, no convicts were actually executed during Brazil's last military conflict, the Second World War. The military personnel sentenced to death during World War II had their sentences reduced by the President of the Republic.
Cuba
Cuba, as part of its penal system, still utilizes death by firing squad, although the last recorded execution was in 2003. In January 1992, a Cuban exile convicted of "terrorism, sabotage and enemy propaganda" was executed by firing squad. The Council of 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 months following the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, soldiers of the Batista government and political opponents to the revolution were executed by firing squad.Along with many former allies of Castro, who did not agree with his communist agenda. Individuals would be executed while appealing their sentences. Silvia Pedraza, Political Disaffection in Cuba's Revolution and Exodus (Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 62. Samuel Farber, The Origins of the Cuban Revolution Reconsidered (University of North Carolina Press: 2006), p. 96.
El Salvador
On 8 February 1971, agents of the National Guard carried out the public execution of Victoriano Gómez Urrutia, who became the last person to be executed by El Salvador. A firing squad shot Gómez Urrutia in a football stadium in San Miguel, executing the sentence for the murders of a woman and her underage daughter committed by Gómez Urrutia in January 1961.
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.War Victims of Finland 1914–1922 at the Finnish National Archives 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 citizens 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 by the local military police in the case of spies. 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.Kuolemantuomio kuolemantuomiolle at Statistics Finland (in Finnish) 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
Pte. 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 Pte. 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.The Shot at Dawn Campaign The New Zealand government pardoned its troops in 2000; the British government in 1998 expressed sympathy for the executed and in 2006 the Secretary of State for Defence announced a full pardon for all 306 executed soldiers from the First World War.The Daily Telegraph, Ben Fenton, August 16, 2006, accessed October 14, 2006
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 after being convicted of spying 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, crossed the Moselle Rivers behind U.S. lines in civilian clothes to observe Allied strength and were to rejoin their own army on the same day. However, they were discovered by the Americans and arrested. On 18 October 1944 they 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's is shown in these links.