Why is death by firing squad not cruel and unusual?
No. Though it has rarely been used outside of wartime, no case
has ever been successfully brought against the practice in the
United States. It has only ever been used as a method of execution
in 4 states, is no longer used in 2 of those, and is only currently
a backup option to lethal injection in 2. The U.S. Supreme Court
has only once heard the case that the firing squad is cruel and
unusual, and in that case, Wilkerson v. Utah (1878), the Court
found that the firing squad did not constitute cruel and unusual
punishment. The last case of firing squad execution in the United
States was in Utah in 1996 and was elected by the condemned. Utah
removed the option for firing squad execution in 2004. A 1993
survey suggested that Firing Squad was more painful to the
condemned only than execution by lethal injection, below
electrocution, the second most common method of execution in the
United States.