EXECUTION BY FIRING SQUAD · UNITED STATESFIG. 01 · APPARATUS · CHAIR & CATCH BASIN
THEFIRINGSQUADDOSSIER.
The record in numbers
Executions on record
0
1977 – 2025 · post-Furman
States authorizing
0
ID · MS · OK · SC · UT
First colonial use
0
Jamestown · Kendall
Upheld by SCOTUS
0
Wilkerson v. Utah
Rifles per volley
5+1
At least one blank
Distance to target
24 ft
Cloth square · heart
The six men shot by the state — click a face to open the file
§01 · How it works
A chair. A wall. Gun ports.
Every American firing-squad chamber is built to the same logic: a chair with straps, a wall with openings cut into it, and a marked shooting position on the far side. What changes from state to state is the number of rifles, the distance, the ammunition — and whether anyone has written the procedure down at all.
Toggle through the five states that authorize the rifle to see how each one says it would kill a person.
- Shooters
- 5 certified officers
- Selection
- Volunteer peace officers
- Hood
- Placed over the head
- Backstop
- Sandbag wall
Utah State Correctional Facility
Utah
Shooters
5
Ports
5
Distance
~25 feet
Blanks
1 of 5 rifles loaded with a blank
Rifle
.30-caliber Winchester rifles
Target
White cloth square pinned over the heart
Restraint
Metal chair, straps at ankles, waist, chest and arms
The oldest continuous protocol in the country. Sandbags stacked behind the chair catch the rounds. Gilmore (1977), Taylor (1996) and Gardner (2010) all died here.
Exhibit · Apparatus
The equipment, plate by plate.
Seven pieces of hardware turn a room into an execution chamber. Each one is specified in writing, purchased with public money, and inspected before use.
Plate 01The chair and catch basin
A steel chair bolted over a pan that collects blood. Straps at the ankles, the waist, the wrists and the chest. Utah used a wooden chair with a canvas backstop; South Carolina's is metal, set in front of a wall of ballistic panels.
Plate 02The rifles
Utah issued .30-caliber deer rifles to volunteer peace officers. South Carolina uses .308 Winchester rifles loaded with TAP Urban ammunition — a round designed to fragment inside the body. Idaho's rules leave caliber to the director of corrections.
Plate 03Sandbags and gun ports
The shooters stand behind a partition with rectangular openings cut at chest height. Sandbags absorb rounds that miss or pass through. The condemned cannot see who fires.
Plate 04The target
A white cloth square with a black circle is pinned over the heart after a physician marks the spot with a stethoscope. This small piece of fabric is the difference between a two-second death and a minute of drowning in one's own blood.
Plate 05The witness room
Rows of chairs behind glass with a pull-shade. The shade is raised at the moment of the volley and lowered immediately after. Media witnesses in South Carolina described the shade dropping before the body stopped moving.
Plate 06The chamber
Most firing-squad chambers are converted lethal-injection rooms: the gurney is removed, the chair is bolted down, the wall opposite is reinforced. Idaho spent roughly $750,000 converting a room at its maximum-security prison.
Plate 07The round
The autopsy of Mikal Mahdi showed two entry wounds rather than three, and damage to the liver rather than the heart — evidence, his lawyers argued, that the method's precision is a marketing claim rather than a fact.
The modern era · 1977 – 2025
Six men. Three states. One method returning.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, exactly six people have been executed by firing squad. Three in Utah across three decades. Three in South Carolina in a single year. Idaho is preparing to add its own.
Portland Police Bureau booking photograph
№ 011977Gary Gilmore
Utah · January 17, 1977
Murder of Bennie Bushnell
First execution in the U.S. after the 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty. Waived his appeals. Last words: "Let's do it."
Open subject file · FS-01 →Officially clean
Utah State Prison booking photograph
№ 021996John Albert Taylor
Utah · January 26, 1996
Murder of 11-year-old Charla King
Chose the rifle to "embarrass" the state. Five volunteer officers fired from 23 feet. Pronounced dead in two minutes.
Open subject file · FS-02 →Officially clean
Utah Department of Corrections booking photograph
№ 032010Ronnie Lee Gardner
Utah · June 18, 2010
Murder of attorney Michael Burdell during a courthouse escape
The last firing-squad execution before a 15-year national pause. Requested the method under Utah's grandfather clause.
Open subject file · FS-03 →Officially clean
South Carolina Department of Corrections photograph
№ 042025Brad Sigmon
South Carolina · March 7, 2025
1996 murders of his ex-girlfriend's parents
First American firing-squad execution in 15 years. Chose the rifle over the electric chair and a lethal injection he called "cruel."
Open subject file · FS-04 →Officially clean
Public record headshot
№ 052025Mikal Mahdi
South Carolina · April 11, 2025
2004 murder of off-duty officer James Myers
Autopsy indicated the shooters missed the heart. Two rounds struck the liver and lungs. Death took an estimated 30–60 seconds of conscious suffering.
Open subject file · FS-05 →Botched by autopsy
South Carolina Department of Corrections photograph
№ 062025Stephen Bryant
South Carolina · November 14, 2025
2004 spree killings
The third and most recent firing-squad execution. Carried out in the same Columbia chamber built for Sigmon eight months earlier.
Open subject file · FS-06 →Outcome disputed
And now, the return.
For decades the rifle was a relic offered to a handful of men. It is being rewritten into statute as a standing method — a choice, a fallback, and in Idaho, the default.
6
Executed by rifle since 1977
3
States that have used it
5
States now authorizing
1879
Upheld by SCOTUS
§02 · The argument
Four promises. Four failures.
The case for the firing squad rests on four claims. Each one is defended in a legislature and undone in an autopsy. Here they are, in the order the state offers them.
Certainty
"A bullet, unlike a vein, cannot fail to be found."
Autopsy reports show bullets that missed the heart, prolonged consciousness, and shooters who fired at cardboard, not at a body.
Humanity
"A gunshot to the chest is fast, and fast is painless."
What a bullet does to a body a few centimeters off center is not fast. Chapter 6 counts the seconds a conscious person continues to suffer.
Honesty
"No IV, no medical vocabulary — just a gun, plainly."
Behind a black pull-shade, by shooters whose names the state seals by law, aimed by men who train against cardboard rather than a person.
Free Choice
"Sigmon chose the bullet. Mahdi did too. That makes it consensual."
What does choice mean when every option on the menu ends the same way — and the party doing the killing wrote the menu?
Exhibit · History
A short history of shooting prisoners.
From Jamestown to Boise — every documented pivot toward, and away from, the rifle in American capital punishment.
- Jamestown
1608
Capt. George Kendall executed by firing squad — the first documented shooting of a condemned man in the American colonies.
Utah1879
Wilkerson v. Utah: the Supreme Court upholds the firing squad as constitutional. The holding has never been revisited.
- Utah
1977
Gary Gilmore chooses the firing squad after a decade-long moratorium ends. The post-Furman era begins with a volley.
- Utah
1996
John Albert Taylor executed by rifle at Draper. Public revulsion pushes states away from the method for a generation.
Utah2004
Utah repeals the rifle for new sentences, leaving a grandfather clause for men already condemned.
- Utah
2010
Ronnie Lee Gardner — the last firing-squad execution before a fifteen-year pause.
Utah2015
The firing squad is reinstated as a backup whenever lethal-injection drugs cannot be obtained.
- S. Carolina
2021
South Carolina restores the firing squad and recruits volunteer shooters from inside the Department of Corrections.
- Idaho
2023
Idaho authorizes the firing squad as an alternative when lethal injection is unavailable.
Idaho2024
Thomas Eugene Creech: eight needles, no vein. The execution is halted after nearly an hour of attempts.
- S. Carolina
2025 Mar
Brad Sigmon chooses the rifle. The first American firing-squad execution in fifteen years.
Idaho2025 Mar 12
House Bill 37 is signed. The firing squad becomes Idaho's primary method of execution.
- S. Carolina
2025 Apr
Mikal Mahdi executed by firing squad. The autopsy finds two wounds instead of three and a shredded liver.
- S. Carolina
2025 Nov
Stephen Bryant becomes the third man shot in Columbia in eight months.
- Idaho
2026 Jul 1
HB 37 takes effect. For the first time in United States history, the firing squad is a state's primary method.
Exhibit · Protocol
The protocol, minute by minute.
Every state that authorizes the rifle publishes a sequence in advance. Stripped of jurisdictional wording, they describe the same twenty-four hours.
- T-24hStep 1
Last meal recorded. Condemned moved to a cell adjacent to the chamber.
- T-60mStep 2
Rifles loaded outside the chamber by the team leader. One rifle is loaded blank.
- T-15mStep 3
Witnesses seated behind one-way glass. Black pull-shade drawn.
- T-5mStep 4
Condemned strapped to the chair. Hood placed. Cloth square pinned over the heart.
- T-0Step 5
Shade raised. Three primary shooters fire from behind sandbags through gun ports.
- T+2mStep 6
Physician confirms. Shade lowered. Time of death recorded in the log.
6
Executed by rifle since 1977
3
States that have carried it out
5
States authorizing rifles
1879
Upheld by the Supreme Court
Comparison
Every published protocol, side by side.
No two states shoot the same way. Below, the five authorizing states measured against the same eight questions.
| Element | Utah | South Carolina | Idaho | Oklahoma | Mississippi |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standing in law | Election for pre-2004 sentences; automatic fallback if injection drugs are unavailable (2015). | Prisoner elects among injection, electrocution, and rifle (2021). | Primary method as of July 1, 2026 (House Bill 37). | Third fallback behind injection and nitrogen hypoxia. | Contingency method behind injection and nitrogen hypoxia. |
| Shooters | Five certified peace officers, volunteers, anonymous. | Three volunteer Department of Corrections employees. | Three volunteers, identities sealed by statute. | Unspecified in published policy. | Unspecified in published policy. |
| Blank round | One of five rifles loaded with a blank. | No blank — all three rifles live. | Director may authorize a blank; not required. | Not specified. | Not specified. |
| Weapon and round | .30-caliber rifles, hollow-point ammunition. | .308 Winchester, TAP Urban fragmenting round. | Caliber left to the director of corrections. | Not specified. | Not specified. |
| Distance | Approximately 23 feet. | Approximately 15 feet. | Approximately 24 feet per facility design. | Not specified. | Not specified. |
| Target | White cloth square pinned over the heart by a physician. | Black aim point over the heart, marked by medical staff. | Target affixed over the heart; hood required. | Not specified. | Not specified. |
| Witnesses | Statutory witnesses plus media, behind glass. | Three media witnesses; shade raised only for the volley. | Witness room with a shade; the shooters are never visible. | Standard witness rules apply. | Standard witness rules apply. |
| Times used | Three (1977, 1996, 2010). | Three (March, April, November 2025). | None yet. | None. | None. |
- Standing in law
- Prisoner elects among injection, electrocution, and rifle (2021).
- Shooters
- Three volunteer Department of Corrections employees.
- Blank round
- No blank — all three rifles live.
- Weapon and round
- .308 Winchester, TAP Urban fragmenting round.
- Distance
- Approximately 15 feet.
- Target
- Black aim point over the heart, marked by medical staff.
- Witnesses
- Three media witnesses; shade raised only for the volley.
- Times used
- Three (March, April, November 2025).
Exhibit · Jurisdictions
Where the rifle is legal.
Five states keep the firing squad on the books and a sixth has a bill filed. Every square sits on its own state. Touch one to read the statute in plain language.
Primary method
Idaho
House Bill 37, signed March 12, 2025 and effective July 1, 2026, makes the firing squad Idaho's primary method of execution — the first time any American state has placed the rifle first. A chamber is being retrofitted at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution south of Boise.
Exhibit · Glossary
Glossary.
The working vocabulary of an execution by rifle. Language is the first thing a state controls.
- POST
- Peace Officer Standards and Training. The certification required of every Idaho shooter.
- F-Block
- The maximum-security block housing Idaho's condemned men in Kuna.
- Pocatello
- Site of the state's women's facility. Home to the one woman on Idaho's death row.
- Blank round
- One rifle in the firing squad is loaded blank so no shooter knows if they fired a killing bullet.
- Cloth square
- The white rectangle pinned over the heart as the aiming point.
- Gun port
- A rectangular slot cut in the chamber wall through which shooters fire.
- Death warrant
- The court order authorizing execution within a specified window.
- Spiritual advisor
- A minister or chaplain permitted in the chamber during execution.
- Sandbag rest
- The stacked bags on which the shooters brace their rifles before firing.
- HB 37
- The Idaho House Bill that made the firing squad primary. Effective July 1, 2026.
Exhibit · Voices
In their own words.
The people who wrote the law, watched the volley, or spoke the last sentence of their lives.
I have stood in more execution chambers in more states than any spiritual advisor in the history of the United States. Twelve times I have watched the state kill a person I came to love.
Let's do it.
There is no clean way to take a human life. Each new method was marketed as more humane. Each one was really an attempt to make killing look less like what it is.
What does choice mean when every option on the menu ends the same way — and the party doing the killing wrote the menu?
The vein was never the problem. The problem is what happens when a state decides that killing a person is a task to be optimized rather than a thing it should not be doing at all.
Dress a killing in medical language, courtroom procedure, official witnesses, and a recorded time of death, and none of it changes what happened.
He was still moving after the shade came down.
Exhibit · International
The company the rifle keeps.
Every nation that still shoots prisoners in the twenty-first century. This is the peer set the United States joins each time it loads a rifle.
Currently shoots prisoners
United States
Five states authorize the rifle. Six men have died before American firing squads since 1977 — three of them in 2025 alone.
The source text
The full text of The Lie of the Clean Kill.
Every chapter and reference section, published here in full. Click any line to drop the entire chapter open on this page — endnotes included.
Read the entire book →FRONT MATTER
PART I: THE RETURN OF THE GUN
PART II: THE FOUR BROKEN PROMISES
PART III: IDAHO
PART IV: BEYOND IDAHO
PART V: THE VERDICT
APPENDICES
A book by Jeff Hood
The Lie of the Clean Kill
Idaho, the Firing Squad,
and the Allure of the Bullet
The source text
Every claim on this site can be found in the endnotes of the book.
Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood has served as spiritual advisor at twelve executions across seven states — more than any minister in American history. He writes not from a library but from the witness room.
The Lie of the Clean Kill is the definitive account of Idaho's July 1, 2026 decision: sixteen chapters, seven reference sections, and the complete legislative record.
12
Executions witnessed
16
Chapters
7
Reference sections