John Taylor (see photo) became the second person in the post Furman US to be executed by firing squad.

He chose shooting rather than lethal injection.

Taylor, 36, was convicted of the 1988 rape and strangulation of 11 year-old Charla King and was duly executed on January 26, 1996 at 12:03 a.m. Mountain Time.

One of the nine media witnesses, Paul Murphy of KTVX-TV Salt Lake, described the scene saying “we saw this very large man strapped to a chair. His eyes were darting back and forth."

He was strapped to the dark blue painted execution chair (see photo) by his hands and feet and lifted his chin for Warden Hank Galetka to secure a strap around his neck and place the black hood over his head.

At 12:03 a.m., on the count of three, the five riflemen standing 23 feet away fired the standard Winchester Model 94 rifles.

Four of these were loaded with a single Winchester Silver Tip 150-grain .30-.30 bullet, while the fifth contained a blank round. The relatively light bullets which expand well at short distances, were fired at a white cloth target pinned over Taylor's heart.

Blood rapidly darkened the chest area of his navy blue clothing, and four minutes later, a doctor pronounced him dead. Very little blood spilled into the pan under the chair's mesh seat.

According to a witness, as the volley hit him "Taylor's hands squeezed up, went down, and came up and squeezed again. His chest was covered with blood."

The prison doctor came in, cut holes in the hood and examined Taylor's pupils to verify he was dead, pronouncing him dead at 12:07, according to Ray Wahl, director of field operations at the Utah State Prison. "It went like clockwork, just like we rehearsed," prison warden Hank Galetka said.

"There was no hesitation at all, Taylor went to his death with steely determination even though only hours before he had to be given medication because his stomach was doing flip-flops."

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