Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading, is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are usually readily available and a gunshot to a vital organ, such as the brain or heart, most often will kill relatively quickly.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Ohio, although all executions have been suspended indefinitely by Governor Mike DeWine until a replacement for lethal injection is chosen by the Ohio General Assembly. The last execution in the state was in July 2018, when Robert J. Van Hook was executed via lethal injection for murder.
Capital punishment in Canada dates back to Canada's earliest history, including its period as a French colony and, after 1763, its time as a British colony. From 1867 to the elimination of the death penalty for murder on July 26, 1976, 1,481 people had been sentenced to death, and 710 had been executed. Of those executed, 697 were men and 13 were women. The only method used in Canada for capital punishment of civilians after the end of the French regime was hanging. The last execution in Canada was the double hanging of Arthur Lucas and Ronald Turpin on December 11, 1962, at Toronto's Don Jail. The military prescribed firing squad as the method of execution until 1999, although no military executions had been carried out since 1946.
A garrote or garrote vil is a weapon, usually a handheld ligature of chain, rope, scarf, wire or fishing line, used to strangle a person.
Carlos Arias Navarro, 1st Marquis of Arias-Navarro was one of the best-known Spanish politicians during the Francoist regime.
Salvador Puig Antich was a Spanish militant anarchist from Catalonia. His execution for involvement in a bank robbery and shooting a police officer dead became a cause célèbre in Francoist Spain for Catalan autonomists, pro-independence supporters, and anarchists. After fighting the Spanish state with the terrorist group Iberian Liberation Movement in the early 1970s, he was convicted and executed by garrote for the death of a police officer during a shoot-out.
Julián Grimau García was a Spanish politician, member of the Communist Party of Spain, executed during Francisco Franco's Francoist State.
Capital punishment in Sweden was last used in 1910, though it remained a legal sentence for at least some crimes until 1973. It is now outlawed by the Swedish Constitution, which states that capital punishment, corporal punishment, and torture are strictly prohibited. At the time of the abolition of the death penalty in Sweden, the legal method of execution was beheading.
Capital punishment is forbidden by the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms of the Czech Republic and is simultaneously prohibited by international legal obligations arising from the Czech Republic's membership in both the Council of Europe and the European Union.
Capital punishment in the Philippines specifically, the death penalty, as a form of state-sponsored repression, was introduced and widely practiced by the Spanish government in the Philippines. A substantial number of Filipino national martyrs like Mariano Gómez, José Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora, Thirteen Martyrs of Cavite, Thirteen Martyrs of Bagumbayan, Fifteen Martyrs of Bicol, Nineteen Martyrs of Aklan and Jose Rizal were executed by the Spanish government.
Capital punishment in Finland has been abolished de jure.
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.
Salvador (Puig Antich) (or Salvador) is a 2006 film directed by Manuel Huerga starring Daniel Brühl as Salvador Puig Antich. It is based on the 2001 book Compte enrere. La història de Salvador Puig Antich by Francesc Escribano, which depicts the time Puig Antich spent on death row prior to his execution by garrote (the last person to be executed by this method in Spain) in 1974, in the last rales of the Francoist dictatorship.
The Executioner is a 1963 Spanish black comedy film directed by Luis García Berlanga. It was filmed in black and white, and is widely considered a classic of Spanish cinema. The film won several awards, both in Spain and internationally.
The Movimiento Ibérico de Liberación was a Catalan left-wing political and urban guerrilla organisation between 1971 and 1973, based mainly in Barcelona, Spain, and in Toulouse, France. It became famous after its dissolving because of the execution by the Francoist State of one of its members, Salvador Puig Antich, in March 1974, and of the shooting of Oriol Solé Sugranyes during his escape in 1976. One of its French members, Jean-Marc Rouillan, later became a member of the GARI and then of the terrorist group Action Directe.
Capital punishment in Peru was last used in 1979. In the same year, the death penalty was abolished for ordinary crimes. Peru is one of seven countries that has abolished capital punishment for "ordinary crimes only." Peru voted in favor of the United Nations moratorium on the death penalty in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2020. Peru is not a member state to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Capital punishment is a legal punishment in the East African nation of Somalia. Most of executions in Somalia are through shooting, but Sharia courts also use beheading and stoning. In 2011 three soldiers were executed for murder by the Transitional Federal Government. Another soldier was executed a few years later. The activist NGO Human Rights Watch noted in 2014 that summary executions were on the rise in the nation. At least 14 executions were carried out in 2016, and the rate of executions rose in 2017, which human rights groups mainly attributed to military courts and the militant jihadist group Al-Shabaab. The European Union requested that Somalia enact a moratorium on the death penalty as a result. Most executions by firing squad occur publicly and persons sentenced to death are usually executed by firing squad.
Capital punishment in Thailand is a legal penalty, and the country is, as of 2021, one of 54 nations to retain capital punishment both in legislation and in practice. Of the 10 ASEAN nations, only Cambodia and the Philippines have outlawed it, though Laos and Brunei have not conducted executions for decades.
The last use of capital punishment in Spain took place on 27 September 1975 when two members of the armed Basque nationalist and separatist group ETA political-military and three members of the Revolutionary Antifascist Patriotic Front (FRAP) were executed by firing squads after having been convicted and sentenced to death by military tribunals for the murder of policemen and civil guards. Spain was Western Europe's only dictatorship at the time and had been unpopular and internationally isolated in the post-war period due to its relations with Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s and the fact that its autocratic leader, Francisco Franco, had come to power by overthrowing a democratically elected government. As a result, the executions resulted in substantial criticism of the Spanish government, both domestically and abroad. Reactions included street protests, attacks on Spanish embassies, international criticism of the Spanish government and diplomatic measures, such as the withdrawal of the ambassadors of fifteen European countries.
The General Police Corps was a law enforcement force of Spain established by the Francoist regime in 1941 to conduct criminal investigation and enforce political repression. They should not be confused with the Armed Police Corps, which was responsible for the maintenance of public order.
