Amherst professor Austin Sarat discusses the historical and contemporary use of the firing squad as a method of execution in the United States, which is currently rare but authorized in a few states, including South Carolina, which recently executed Stephen Bryant using this method. Professor Sarat argues that execution by firing squad is a brutal, cold-blooded killing that is not a humane method of capital punishment and reflects a problematic, violent history, thus lessening society as a whole.