Five states still use the firing squad as an authorized method of execution: Idaho, Utah, South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Mississippi. Only Idaho treats it as the primary method. The other four reserve it as a backup, an inmate-elected alternative, or a discretionary choice among several options. In practice, only South Carolina and Utah have carried out firing squad executions in modern times.
The Five States and When the Firing Squad Applies
Each state writes the rule differently. The trigger that puts a firing squad into play ranges from the inmate’s own choice to a court striking down every other method.
Idaho
Idaho is the only state where the firing squad is the default. Governor Brad Little signed House Bill 37 on March 12, 2025, promoting the firing squad from backup to primary method. Lethal injection is now the alternative, available only when the director of corrections certifies it can be carried out. Without that certification, the execution proceeds by firing squad.1Idaho State Legislature. Idaho Code Section 19-2716 – Methods of Execution Before 2025, Idaho had authorized the firing squad only when lethal injection drugs could not be obtained.
Utah
Utah uses lethal injection by default for anyone sentenced to death on or after May 3, 2004. The firing squad takes over in two situations: when a court rules that a particular defendant has a preserved right to die by firing squad (usually because they elected it before the law changed), or when an appellate court strikes down lethal injection as unconstitutional.2Utah Legislature. Utah Code 77-18-5.5 – Judgment of Death – Method Is Lethal Injection – Exceptions for Use of Firing Squad
South Carolina
South Carolina’s default method is electrocution. An inmate can elect the firing squad or lethal injection, but the election has to be made in writing at least 14 days before the scheduled execution date. If the inmate does not choose, the state uses the electric chair.3South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 24-3-530 – Death Penalty Methods of Execution Every inmate executed by firing squad in South Carolina in 2025 picked it over the chair.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma puts its methods in a strict order. Lethal injection comes first. If a court of competent jurisdiction strikes it down or it becomes otherwise unavailable, the state moves to electrocution. The firing squad is last on the list, available only after every method above it has been ruled unconstitutional or is unavailable.4Justia. 2025 Oklahoma Statutes Title 22 Criminal Procedure 22-1014 – Manner of Inflicting Punishment of Death Oklahoma has never carried out a firing squad execution.
Mississippi
Mississippi gives the Commissioner of Corrections and a small group of officials discretion to pick from four methods: lethal injection, nitrogen hypoxia, electrocution, or firing squad. The statute requires cost efficiency to factor into the choice.5Justia. Mississippi Code 99-19-51 – Manner of Execution of Death Sentence No firing squad execution has taken place in Mississippi in modern history.
Why the Firing Squad Is Back
The revival traces almost entirely to drug shortages. Beginning around 2011, pharmaceutical manufacturers started refusing to let their products be used in executions, arguing the drugs were made to heal. By 2016, more than 20 American and European companies had imposed distribution controls to keep their products out of execution chambers. States that depended on lethal injection could not get the drugs they needed.
Idaho’s 2023 law added the firing squad as a backup for exactly this reason, and the 2025 amendment went further, cutting out the pharmaceutical dependency altogether. South Carolina resumed executions only after authorizing the firing squad and electrocution as alternatives, ending a years-long pause.
The list may grow. In early 2026, Indiana’s House Committee on Courts and Criminal Code advanced House Bill 1119 by a vote of 8-5. The bill would authorize the firing squad or nitrogen hypoxia when the Commissioner of the Department of Correction finds those methods advisable based on drug availability and department resources, or when the condemned person requests it. If enacted, Indiana would be the sixth state.
Recent Firing Squad Executions
Firing squad executions are rare even where authorized. Before 2025, the last one in the United States was Ronnie Lee Gardner’s in Utah on June 18, 2010, itself the first in 14 years. Gardner had elected the firing squad before Utah closed that option to newly sentenced inmates. Only three people had been executed by firing squad nationwide since 1977.
South Carolina then carried out three in a single year:
- Brad Sigmon was executed on March 7, 2025, the first firing squad execution in the country since 2010. His attorneys said he chose it because the three inmates executed before him by other methods had reportedly taken more than 20 minutes to die.
- Mikal Mahdi was executed on April 11, 2025. His attorneys later said the execution was botched, alleging that only two of three bullets struck him and that they largely missed his heart. A forensic pathologist hired by the legal team reviewed the autopsy and said Mahdi continued breathing for roughly 80 seconds after the shots. The South Carolina Department of Corrections said its own autopsy found all three bullets hit the heart.
- Stephen Corey Bryant was executed on November 14, 2025, the state’s third firing squad execution that year.
All three men chose the firing squad over electrocution. Their attorneys described the choice as picking the least harmful of the methods available.
How a Firing Squad Execution Is Carried Out
There is no national protocol. Each state writes its own, and the two states with recent experience take noticeably different approaches.
Utah
Utah uses a five-person squad armed with .30 caliber rifles, positioned at least 21 feet from the condemned. Four weapons are loaded with two live rounds each. The fifth holds two blanks, so no shooter can be certain they fired a lethal shot. Shooters must demonstrate proficiency beforehand on a target matching the dimensions of the one placed on the inmate.
South Carolina
South Carolina uses three shooters behind a wall with a rectangular opening, 15 feet from the inmate. All three rifles carry live ammunition; there is no blank round.6South Carolina Department of Corrections. South Carolina Department of Corrections The rounds are .308-caliber Winchester 110-grain, designed to fragment on hitting bone. The inmate is seated, hooded, and fitted with a target over the heart. The warden reads the execution order, and the team fires simultaneously.
Across both states, the inmate is restrained and hooded, a target marks the heart, shooters fire on command, and a medical professional pronounces death. Firing squad members are typically volunteers from correctional staff, and those with conscientious objections are generally excused.
Is the Firing Squad Constitutional?
Yes, and the ruling that settled it is almost 150 years old. In Wilkerson v. Utah (1878), the U.S. Supreme Court held that execution by shooting does not amount to cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment, distinguishing it from historical practices like public disembowelment or burning alive.7Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center. Wilkerson v. Utah 99 US 130 (1878) That holding has never been overturned.
Modern challenges to any execution method face a steep standard. In Bucklew v. Precythe (2019), the Supreme Court held that an inmate challenging a method must identify a “feasible, readily implemented” alternative that would “significantly reduce a substantial risk of severe pain,” and must also show that the state has no legitimate reason for refusing to adopt it.8Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center. Bucklew v. Precythe The Court said the Eighth Amendment does not guarantee a painless death.
That standard makes firing squad challenges hard to win. An inmate has to propose a specific, workable alternative that causes meaningfully less pain, and courts have been reluctant to second-guess states on execution logistics. The dispute over Mikal Mahdi’s execution may test the limits, but as of early 2026 no court has found a modern firing squad protocol unconstitutional.