Lethal injection has long served as the prevailing and seemingly unquestioned method for carrying out capital punishment across the United States. However, persistent supply-chain bottlenecks, pharmaceutical boycotts, and a mounting series of high-profile botched executions are increasingly compelling officials nationwide to re-evaluate alternative options. This shift has brought renewed attention to methods that, until recently, had been almost entirely relegated to historical memory—most notably, execution by firing squad.

The debate intensified significantly following the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee, marking the second time this year that a lethal injection procedure went awry in the state. In the wake of the incident, a chorus of Tennessee lawmakers publicly demanded that the state abandon lethal injection in favor of more predictable and reliable alternatives.

“If we’re having this much trouble with this particular means of execution, we need to take it off the table and go to something that’s far more reliable and predictable,” Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson said while speaking on a local radio show. Similarly, Republican U.S. Representative Tim Burchett told local station WVLT that Tennessee should transition away from lethal injection toward methods that leave “very little room for mistakes.” Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton echoed these sentiments in an interview with The Associated Press, stating that no alternative method remains off the table.

Among the options highlighted by lawmakers is the firing squad, a practice used exceedingly rarely in modern American history. Between 1976 and 2024, only three people were put to death by firing squad in the entire country, all of them in Utah. Yet, Tennessee politicians are far from alone in considering a revival of the practice, as state executives and federal leaders have already taken concrete steps to reintroduce it.

President Donald Trump approved the U.S. Army’s first execution of a soldier via firing squad since World War II, greenlighting the method for Nidal Hasan. Hasan, a former U.S. Army major and psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people in a 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, is scheduled to face the firing squad following a formal recommendation by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The execution is scheduled to take place at Fort Hood and has been announced to be livestreamed. This federal approval follows the Justice Department’s formal authorization of firing squads for federal executions earlier in the year.

State-level momentum has been equally pronounced. Last year, following a troubled lethal injection attempt, South Carolina executed three death row inmates by firing squad, effectively doubling the number of such executions carried out nationwide over the preceding half-century. Meanwhile, Idaho enacted a law establishing the firing squad as its primary method for capital punishment, directly responding to its own high-profile botched lethal injection in 2024.

How does a firing squad execution work?

While the precise mechanics can vary depending on the jurisdiction, the general protocol for a firing squad execution follows a deeply established historical template, according to Austin Sarat, a professor of law and political science at Amherst College and author of Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America’s Death Penalty.

Traditionally, the condemned individual is securely strapped to a heavy wooden or metal chair. A hood or mask is placed over their head, and a circular cloth target is pinned directly over their heart to provide a clear aiming point for the marksmen.

Between three and five executioners, typically utilizing high-powered rifles, take positions behind a barrier with a small opening for their rifle barrels. In many jurisdictions, one of the rifles is intentionally loaded with a blank round rather than live ammunition, ensuring that the individual shooters do not know definitively whose weapon fired the fatal projectile. When the command is given, the squad fires simultaneously into the heart of the condemned.

Which states allow execution by firing squad?

Currently, execution by firing squad is legally permitted in just five states: Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah.

Under its newly enacted legislation, Idaho stands alone as the only state that utilizes the firing squad as its default primary method. In the remaining four states, the firing squad functions either as a secondary fallback option if lethal injection drugs cannot be procured, or as one of several choices available to corrections departments or inmates themselves.

Utah designated the firing squad as an alternative fallback method in 2015, specifically intended for situations where lethal injection chemicals are unavailable. Oklahoma authorized the practice as a method of last resort in 2011. Mississippi granted corrections officials discretion in 2022 to select from four authorized methods, including the firing squad.

In South Carolina, the firing squad has been offered since 2021 as one of multiple choices for death row inmates, alongside electrocution and lethal injection. If an inmate declines to make a selection, the state defaults to electrocution. Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, notes that at least one inmate opted for the firing squad due to a lack of transparency regarding the alternative methods. Prisoners seeking details on lethal injection and the electric chair were reportedly denied comprehensive explanations, leaving the firing squad as the only method they felt sufficiently informed to choose.

Lethal injection issues prompt a search for solutions

The widespread adoption of lethal injection began in Oklahoma in 1977 as states sought more humane avenues for capital punishment. For decades, the standard protocol relied on a three-drug cocktail: sodium thiopental to induce unconsciousness, a paralytic agent to stop breathing, and potassium chloride to arrest the heart.

The landscape shifted dramatically in 2011 when Hospira, the sole U.S. manufacturer of sodium thiopental, ceased production of the drug. This forced corrections departments nationwide to hastily revise their procedures. According to Dr. Richard Levy, an anesthesiologist at Columbia University, most states transitioned to a single-drug approach, a methodology he characterizes as fundamentally flawed and problematic.

Many jurisdictions adopted pentobarbital, a central nervous system depressant. Dr. Levy explains that pentobarbital fails to induce unconsciousness as rapidly or reliably as sodium thiopental, nor does it consistently stop breathing in a predictable timeframe. During Christa Pike’s failed execution in Tennessee, she was administered two doses of pentobarbital after technicians struggled with multiple needle insertions to access a vein. She complained of severe burning sensations in her arms before being rushed to a hospital. While her legal team initially believed she was brain dead, she subsequently regained consciousness and was reported to be walking.

Compounding these pharmacological issues, major pharmaceutical companies have maintained strict opposition to supplying drugs for capital punishment. This dynamic has forced prolonged pauses in executions. South Carolina went over a decade without carrying out an execution due to supply blockades before securing pentobarbital in 2023. Oklahoma similarly pivoted to midazolam in 2014 after failing to acquire traditional anesthetics, resulting in several heavily criticized executions, including one lasting 45 minutes.

Federal authorities have cited identical supply-chain vulnerabilities. Prior to authorizing firing squads, the Department of Justice released a report noting that expanding authorized execution methods would ensure the federal government could carry out lawful sentences despite ongoing pharmaceutical shortages.

Data compiled by Professor Sarat underscores that lethal injection carries the highest rate of botched procedures among modern execution methods. His comprehensive studies indicate that approximately 7% of lethal injection executions between 1890 and 2010 were compromised, a figure that climbed to over 8% in the decade spanning 2010 to 2020.

Proponents of alternative methods argue that the firing squad offers greater operational certainty. Idaho state Rep. Bruce Skaug, sponsor of the state’s default firing squad legislation, defended the approach by calling it certain, quick, and efficient in delivering justice. Historical reviews of firing squad executions in the U.S. show almost no recorded instances of significant operational failure between 1890 and 2010, though an autopsy from a recent South Carolina execution indicated a possible missed target, suggesting potential prolonged suffering.

Critics, however, view the resurgence of the firing squad with profound alarm. Sarat contends that while firing squads have experienced fewer mechanical failures, the method remains an inherently brutal form of punishment that society previously abandoned because it failed to align with evolving standards of human decency.

As states grapple with these challenges, other legacy methods have also seen renewed consideration. The Justice Department’s federal guidelines now encompass gas asphyxiation, electrocution, and firing squads. In 2024, Alabama became the first state to execute an inmate using nitrogen gas, a practice subsequently adopted by four other states.

Despite legislative efforts to revamp execution protocols across various states, experts emphasize that capital punishment continues its long-term national decline. The death penalty is currently outlawed in 23 states, while another 10 states have not performed an execution within the past decade. An additional four states have remained inactive for five years.

“The United States is on the road to abolition… The death penalty is dying,” Sarat concludes, suggesting that neither executive directives on firing squads nor isolated execution failures are likely to reverse the broader downward trajectory of capital punishment in America.