DEATH PENALTY
WHEN LIFE GENERATES DEATH (LEGALLY)

SHOOTING

Survival time: uncertain The sentence is performed by a firing squad made up of from six to eighteen men; not all the weapons are loaded. After the sentenced has got the first discharge to the order of the commander of the firing squad, the latter approaches him and shoots him in the head or in the nape: this is the coup de grāce. This is what Father Joseph Vernet, former execution French chaplain, thinks: "The consciousness, in spite of the coup de grāce, remains for long; this method is among the cruelest ones. In fact the execution takes place at daybreak, in a blockhouse, far away from everybody's eyes".