Capital punishment is a thorny business, to say the least. The electric chair does not exactly seem like the most painless way to carry out a death sentence. Chemicals for lethal injection are hard to source and reportedly pose the possibility of a painful death.

South Carolina, meanwhile, has determined that three 7.62×51mm NATO rounds to the heart is a pretty safe bet:

South Carolina is ready to execute death-row inmates by firing squad, the state said Friday.

Last May, the state's lawmakers approved death penalty legislation that gave inmates the option of selecting a firing squad as their method of execution.

Now, we are know the popular image of a firing squad: One in which the condemned prisoner is at the end of a field or alleyway, blindfolded and smoking a cigarette, while some sandinistas aim M1 Garands at them and fire away.

But a modern firing squad is apparently far more prosaic, at least as far as these things go:

Inmates who want to die by a firing squad will be strapped to a chair in the same room as the state's electric chair, which is more than a century old and cannot be moved.

Inmates waiting to be executed will face a wall that has an opening through which the firing squad will do its work.

Witnesses will not see the firing squad, but they will see the inmate in profile as the execution takes place.

Once the inmate is strapped down and has a hood placed over the inmate's head, an aim point will be placed over the heart.

I gotta say, not that I want to think about it too much, but I might choose that as the way to go if I were on death row. Lethal injection... no thank you. Electric chair... no thank you. I'd even be nervous about risking a hanging.

But three bullets to the heart is going to do the job very quickly.

Compared to the other options this is probably one of the less awful ways to find yourself there.

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