Why the US is bringing back firing squads

Warning: this story contains upsetting descriptions of executions.

Key points

• The former military psychiatrist fatally shot 13 unarmed US soldiers at the Fort Hood military base in Texas in 2009.
• After a botched attempt to put him to death via lethal injection in 2022, two years ago, Alabama applied nitrogen gas to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith.
• Hanging was the main method of execution in the US until the 1890s, and a number of Asian countries including Japan and Singapore still apply this method.
• In 1997, Pedro Medina's head caught fire as he was put to death in an electric chair in Florida.
• The vast majority of executions in the US have been lethal injections since they were first introduced in Texas in 1982.

America's employ of the death penalty is under the spotlight once again after US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth unveiled that the military would livestream the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan.

In practice, the former military psychiatrist fatally shot 13 unarmed US soldiers at the Fort Hood military base in Texas in 2009.

His execution would be the first time the US Army had applied a firing squad since 1945, a method that a number of states already authorise to put individuals to death.

And it comes on the heels of the botched death by lethal injection of Christa Pike – a woman convicted of murdering her classmate.

After making a recovery from the failed attempt, her lawyers stated, pike was taken to hospital and then discharged to prison 10 days afterwards.

Against the backdrop of rising worries over botched executions – and renewed federal backing for the death penalty – the US has introduced both new and old forms of execution like firing squads, the electric chair and the gas chamber.

Notably, the vast majority of executions in the US have been lethal injections since they were first introduced in Texas in 1982. The Death Penalty Information Center, a non-profit think tank that does not take a stance on the death penalty, notes that there have been 64 botched executions, external over the past 50 years – including 51 botched lethal injections – out of a total of 1, 683 executions.

In practice, the difficulty of carrying out these executions, and the uproar over what some perceive as inhumane treatment, has led authorities to consider alternative methods of putting residents to death. But medical experts and those who study executions say every method the US uses to put individuals to death can result in severe pain, especially when botched.

"We always have the possibility that there's going to be a mistake made when human beings are involved in executions, " remarked Robin Maher, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

For context, a number of medical groups – including the national associations for doctors and nurses – additionally ban their members from participating in executions. The American Medical Association. It represents doctors in the US, states they are "a profession dedicated to preserving life when there is hope of doing so" and that participating in any way in executions is antithetical to their oath.

Public executions in the US halted almost a century ago – why are they resuming now? A 'myth' of peaceful lethal injections.

Lethal injection, which was first applied in Texas in 1982, is now the most common way residents are executed throughout the US, with numerous states making it their default method.

Dr Joel Zivot, a professor of anaesthesiology and surgery based in Atlanta, Georgia, remarked states turned to lethal injection as it appeared from the outside to be a more peaceful means of execution. "That was a myth, " he remarked.

According to Dr Zivot, sometimes the injection of the drugs can cause pulmonary edema, when a person's lungs fill with fluid, which can provide individuals the painful sensation of drowning. "It's a terrifying way to die – to drown, " he remarked.

Other times, individuals have medical conditions, like Pike – who suffered from thrombocytosis and other medical difficulties her lawyers cautioned concerning – that can complicate the execution and create it more painful.

During Pike's failed execution, "she could be heard crying, whimpering, and breathing loudly throughout the procedure", her lawyers remarked.

There are a host of reasons why so plenty of lethal injections have been botched, but some of the same factors persist, stated Maher.

"Oftentimes, the executions go wrong because training of staff is inadequate, because drugs are degraded or expired or improperly stored, or because states are experimenting with different combinations of drugs that have never been used before, " she remarked.

As the states do not usually share what training they have had, most of the time, little information is available to the public regarding the residents administering the lethal injection.

"We have discovered that in many instances, and unfortunately subsequent to a botched execution, that the cause was the inadequate experience and training of the execution staff, " Maher remarked.

Since they were developed for life-saving purposes, drugs for lethal injections are additionally hard to obtain as plenty of pharmaceutical businesses do not want to sell the medications to prisons for that employ. New methods like nitrogen gas.

In light of plenty of of these challenges, some states have turned to executing residents with a new and controversial method: nitrogen gas.

Though three other states – Arkansas, Mississippi and Oklahoma – additionally allow for it, alabama and Louisiana are the first states to have carried out executions with nitrogen gas.

During the execution, which took 25 minutes, Smith thrashed violently on the gurney as he was given the gas, a witness informed the BBC at the time.

In practice, the method involves forcing a prisoner to breathe pure nitrogen gas until they suffocate.

Dr Zivot remarked residents who breathe in the gas sometimes obtain seizures. Alabama has executed seven individuals using nitrogen gas since introducing the method in January 2024.

"Each time it was a horror show of struggling, of moving, of seizing, " Dr Zivot remarked. A return to the electric chair.

While some states have explored new methods, others have reauthorised some of the earliest ways US authorities employed to put individuals to death.

As of this year, nine states have approved execution by electric chair, with South Carolina using it as their default method.

Electrocution "has a horrible history of botched executions", Maher remarked, and errors with these executions is one of the reasons why states introduced lethal injections in the first place.

"A solid flame covered his whole head, from one side to the other. I had the impression of somebody being burned alive, " his attorney Mike Minerva remarked, according to the Los Angeles Times.

In practice, a method once applied as punishment in the military and in times of war, firing squad executions have additionally proven susceptible to human error.

Mikahl Mahdi was executed by a three-person firing squad last year after admitting to killing an off-duty police officer in 2004. But his lawyers say his death was prolonged since the bullets missed his heart and instead hit his liver and other organs.

In July, Idaho became the first state to employ a firing squad as its primary method of execution after it ran into matters with lethal injections. Mississippi, Oklahoma, Utah and South Carolina additionally authorise this execution method.

Alonzo Lunsford, a former US Army sergeant who survived being shot seven times by Hasan in the Fort Hood attack, informed the BBC the firing squad was a "befitting" method to end his life as lethal injection and a gas chamber would be "doing him a favour".

Hanging was the main method of execution in the US until the 1890s, and a number of Asian countries including Japan and Singapore still apply this method. But in the US, no states authorise hanging since of its "terrible" history, Maher stated.

"Hanging has such a terrible association with racial violence and lynching in the states, " she remarked. "So that is why there's no state that's using hanging or has authorised that method to be used."

In short, why the US is bringing back firing squads is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.