1996:, John Albert Taylor, the Last American to Face a Firing Squad

ExecutedToday.com ^ | January 26, 2010 | Headsman

[CheshireTheCat]

Like Gilmore, Taylor voluntarily dropped his appeals and sought his own execution for the 1989 rape-murder of Charla Nicole King. A confidante would later reveal that health problems led him to do so in preference to the feared alternative of dying alone in his cell.

[CheshireTheCat]

Actually, if you follow the link in the first paragraph you find that this man was not actually the last person in the U.S. executed this way.

I'm not a big fan of lethal injection. I don't think murderers should be killed in essentially much the same manner that beloved, suffering pets are euthanized. However, I can understand why someone would not want to be strapped to a gurney and would want to "die like a man" facing a firing squad. I'm not sure murderers deserve that kind of consideration.

[tflabo]

A firing squad is a quicker, more humane death than the injections. A near instant death with perhaps a few seconds of pain at most? The gilloutine although medieval and bloody too is also humane for the executed in quick fashion. Injections, electric chair , gas chamber not so much.

[skepsel]

Hang the condemned, it’s merciful and quick if done right, energy efficient and environmentally friendly.

They could even put a happy face on the hood.

[Spacetrucker]

The most humane way to execute someone would be by nitrogen hypoxia. Several states have put it on the list for use and I believe Oklahoma has it as their primary form of execution once the protocols are worked out.

[SamAdams76]

Maybe I’m just weird but I’m thinking the best way to execute murderers is to drop them out of an airplane without a parachute somewhere over the Arctic Circle - say about 40,000 feet up.