Firing Squad: What Happens On Execution Day?

By Sky News US Team

Utah has passed a law that will see firing squads reintroduced as a back-up method in case lethal injection drugs are not available.

One, two or three days before execution:

:: Contrary to popular belief, prisoners on death row do not get a formal "last meal" on the day they are killed. Most states will offer the condemned person a "special meal" in the days before they are put to death.

:: On June 15, 2010, three days before his execution, Ronnie Lee Gardner, the last person to be executed by firing squad in Utah, reportedly ate a last meal of steak, lobster tail, apple pie, vanilla ice cream and 7-Up, before starting a 48-hour fast while watching The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and reading Divine Justice.

On execution day:

:: The prisoner is seated in a chair set up in front of a wood panel. The chair is in between stacked sandbags that keep the bullets from ricocheting around the room.

:: A target is pinned to the inmate's heart. Shooters aim for the chest rather than the head because it is a bigger target and usually allows for a faster death, according to the man who sponsored the proposal, Utah Republican Paul Ray.

:: The Washington DC-based Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment, warns a firing squad is not a foolproof execution method because the inmate could move or the shooters could miss the heart, causing a slower, more painful death.

:: The inmate has two minutes to offer final words. In 1977, Gary Gilmore, executed by firing squad for the murder of two men, said "Let's do this" before he died.

:: Five shooters set up about 25ft (7.5m) from the chair, with their .30 calibre Winchester rifles pointing through slots in a wall.

:: The gunmen are chosen from a pool of volunteer officers, with priority given to those from the area where the crime happened.

:: The shooters' identities are kept anonymous, and one of their rifles is loaded with a blank round so nobody knows which officer killed the inmate. Assuming they hit their target, the heart ruptures and the prisoner dies quickly from blood loss.