Fusillading

An early Wyoming Firing Squad

 Wyoming has 1 prisoner on death row and his case is under appeal. Without him, the lord high executioner can take a few years off. He is the only bit of work looming on the horizon.

With this huge backlog, of course some state senator there wanted to re-instate execution by firing squad.  In our times of high unemployment this sounds like a pretty good gig.  You can show up for work sometime in the year 2020 or so and see what is going on and, if the same conditions persist, you can go home for another half dozen and check back in then. 

I think the entire thing makes us look civilized; sophisticated even.  I was also intrigued, of course, about this no-show job so I read the following on Wiki:

"Execution by firing squad, sometimes called fusillading (from the French fusil, rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Execution by shooting is a fairly old practice. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are usually readily available and a gunshot to a vital organ usually kills the subject relatively quickly. Before the introduction of firearms, bows or crossbows were often used — Saint Sebastian is usually depicted as executed by a squad of Roman auxiliary archers in around 288 AD; King Edmund the Martyr of East Anglia, by some accounts, was tied to a tree and executed by Viking archers on 20 November 869 or 870 AD.

A firing squad is normally composed of several soldiers or law enforcement officers. Usually, all members of the group are instructed to fire simultaneously, thus preventing both disruption of the process by a single member and identification of the member who fired the lethal shot. The prisoner is typically blindfolded or hooded, as well as restrained, although in some cases prisoners have asked to

blindfold on? blindfold off?

be allowed to face the firing squad without their eyes covered. Executions can be carried out with the condemned either standing or sitting. There is a tradition in some jurisdictions that such executions are carried out at first light, or at sunrise, which is usually up to half an hour later. This gave rise to the phrase "shot at dawn".

Execution by firing squad is distinct from other forms of execution by firearms, such as an execution by a single firearm to the back of the head or neck. However, the single shot (coup de grâce) is sometimes incorporated in a firing squad execution, particularly if the initial volley turns out not to be immediately fatal".

Seems like a far cry from a bow and arrow and an apple.