Execution by shooting is a method of capital punishment in which a person is shot to death by one or more firearms. It is the most common method of execution worldwide, used in about 70 countries, with execution by firing squad being one particular form. In most countries, execution by a firing squad has historically been considered a more honorable death and was used primarily for military personnel, though in some countries—among them Belarus, the only state in Europe today that has the death penalty—the single executioner shooting inherited from the Soviet past is still in use.
Although Brazil abolished the death penalty, it can be used for the occurrence of certain crimes in a period of war, such as betrayal, conspiracy, mutiny, unauthorized retreating in battles and theft of equipment or supplies in a military base. The execution method in this case is execution by shooting.
Europe
In Belarus executions are performed by a single executioner shooting the back of the head from behind with a pistol.
Soviet Bloc
In 20th-century communist states, shooting was a standard form of execution of civilian and military prisoners alike, with the Soviet Union setting an example of the single-executioner approach. The firing squad, with its solemn and lengthy ceremony was used infrequently. The most common method was the firing of a pistol bullet into the back of the head. This method was widely used during the Great Purges of the late 1930s at locations outside the major cities, e.g. Krasny Bor near Petrozavodsk, against purportedly anti-social elements, "counter-revolutionaries" and other Enemies of the People. It was also used in the execution of those who had committed ordinary criminal offences. On occasion, it is said, the person to be executed was led through a series of corridors, not knowing when or where the shot would take place. Even after the breakup of the Soviet Union, people continued to be executed by shooting. Serial killer Andrei Chikatilo was executed in this way in 1994, just before Russia halted use of the death penalty as part of its accession to the Council of Europe. The phrase "execution by firing squad" is often incorrectly used to translate the Russian termрасстрел. This, in general, describes any form of shooting, regardless of method, though it is more likely to refer to the single executioner who fires a bullet to the back of the head than to a firing squad.
United Kingdom
No British citizen has ever been executed for a civilian crime by shooting. A Royal Commission on Capital Punishment considered shooting as a possible alternative to hanging, although the findings published in 1953 concluded shooting was not sufficiently effective a means of execution to justify a switch to the method from hanging.
In the People's Republic of China, shooting as a method of execution takes two typical formats, either a pistol shot in the back of the head or neck or a shot by a rifle in either the back or the back of the head from behind. Some more recent executions have been private and carried out using lethal injection, though shooting is still more frequently used. Hong Kong abolished the death penalty and Macau never had the death penalty prior to the handover, and neither restored it when they returned to Chinese sovereignty.
In India, during the Mughal rule, soldiers who committed crimes were executed by being strapped to a cannon which was then fired. This was known as blowing from a gun. This method, invented by the Mughals, was continued by the British who used it to execute native deserters and mutineers, especially after the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. It is no longer practiced in the Republic of India, having been replaced by long drop hanging.
In Indonesia, capital punishment is administered by a firing squad which aims for the heart.
In Mongolia, the method of execution before abolition in 2012 was a bullet to the back of a head from a.38 caliber revolver, a method inherited from Soviet legislation. Executions before 2012 were mostly done in China.
In North Korea, executions are carried out by firing squad in public, making North Korea one of four countries that continue performing public executions.
In Taiwan, the customary method is a single shot aimed at the heart. Before the execution, the prisoner is injected with a strong anesthetic to leave them completely senseless.
In Thailand from 1934 until 2003, a single executioner would shoot the convict in the back from a mounted machine gun. In 1979 a Thai woman named Ginggaew was executed only to wake up and walk. She was then shot a second time. Executions are now done by lethal injection.
