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Should firing squads replace lethal injections?

VICE News Tonight explores the debate over firing squad executions as states face shortages of lethal injection drugs.

This segment originally aired March 7, 2017, on VICE News Tonight on HBO.

As states struggle with supplies of drugs used for lethal injections and with the fallout from some recent botched executions, some of the 31 states where the death penalty is legal are looking at firing squads as a backup form of execution.

Ronnie Lee Gardner was the last man killed by firing squad in the United States, in 2010. His brother, Randy Gardner, is now an advocate for ending capital punishment.

VICE News talks to Randy as well as reporter Sheryl Worsley, who witnessed the execution. We also speak with a professor who has studied capital punishment and believes that death by firing squad is actually better than death by lethal injection.