JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI— The Mississippi state legislature this week passed a bill that may lead to death by firing squad for prisoners sentenced to capital punishment.
In other states that allow death by firing squad execution, the prisoner is typically hooded and strapped into a chair with a target placed on their chest.
A line of gunmen are usually situated 25 feet away behind a brick wall with gun ports, covered by black curtains. These gunmen are typically equipped with a .30 caliber Winchester rifle.
One rifle is loaded with a blank so that none of the gunmen know for certain who delivered the fatal shot. Once fired, the bullets hit the prisoner’s lungs and heart, puncturing those organs and cutting off circulation to the brain.
According to the Jackson Clarion Ledger, the last time Mississippi executed a prisoner was in 2012. That inmate was killed via lethal injection, but other executions have since been held up over a federal lawsuit against the state, concerning the constitutionality of execution drugs, reported the New York Daily News.
