As executioners are finding it more and more difficult to find drugs to use in lethal injections (see our prior post on this), discussion has begun on an alternative to injection as a way of killing for capital punishment.

Recently, an opinion piece on CNN.com written by Robert Blecker, a law professor at New York Law School, has gained lots of attention.

Grits For Breakfast, a noted criminal justice blog based in Austin, Texas, supports his suggestion that firing squads be the alternative chosen by states for future executions.

Sentencing Law and Policy, another well-respected blog published by Ohio Law Professor Douglas Berman, also points to Blecker’s article favorably.  (Comments here are very interesting.)

Firing squads instead of lethal injection?  Guess it would be a lot easier to find enough bullets.  

And, history shows firing squads are fast, cheap, and effective as shown in the photograph below from the National Archives, where  "...German General Anton Dostler’s body slumps toward the ground after being executed by a firing squad at Aversa, Italy. The general was convicted and sentenced to death by an American Military Tribunal."

 

German General Anton Dostler's body slumps toward the ground after being executed by a firing squad at Aversa, Italy. The general was convicted and sentenced to death by an American Military Tribunal.