Botched Military Executions in Canada

[grumbler]

I would be willing to bet some serious cash that this is just another rumor, like the identical ones about other firing squads.

There almost always is, in fact, an officer assigned to provide a "mercy shot" for the condemned if the firing squad fails to fulfill its mission.

[Caliga]

Yeah, I kinda figured if the 'official' volley didn't work, someone would just walk up to the guy and cap him in the head.

[Malthus]

Never heard of anyone walking away from a military execution - doesn't mean it hasn't happened.

My favourite (though admittedly not the same thing exactly) was the "joke" played on Dostoevsky by the Tzar:

In 1847 Dostoyevsky began to participate in the Petrashevsky Circle, a group of intellectuals who discussed utopian socialism. He eventually joined a related, secret group devoted to revolution and illegal propaganda. It appears that Dostoyevsky did not sympathize (as others did) with egalitarian communism and terrorism but was motivated by his strong disapproval of serfdom. On April 23, 1849, he and the other members of the Petrashevsky Circle were arrested. Dostoyevsky spent eight months in prison until, on December 22, the prisoners were led without warning to the Semyonovsky Square. There a sentence of death by firing squad was pronounced, last rites were offered, and three prisoners were led out to be shot first. At the last possible moment, the guns were lowered and a messenger arrived with the information that the tsar had deigned to spare their lives. The mock-execution ceremony was in fact part of the punishment. One of the prisoners went permanently insane on the spot; another went on to write Crime and Punishment.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/169765/Fyodor-Dostoyevsky/59052/Political-activity-and-arrest

[Caliga]

I wish we still had Tsars like that around today. 

[Malthus]

I wish we still had Tsars like that around today. 

Just think of what other hilarious pranks they could play. 

[DGuller]

Never heard of anyone walking away from a military execution - doesn't mean it hasn't happened.

My favourite (though admittedly not the same thing exactly) was the "joke" played on Dostoevsky by the Tzar:

In 1847 Dostoyevsky began to participate in the Petrashevsky Circle, a group of intellectuals who discussed utopian socialism. He eventually joined a related, secret group devoted to revolution and illegal propaganda. It appears that Dostoyevsky did not sympathize (as others did) with egalitarian communism and terrorism but was motivated by his strong disapproval of serfdom. On April 23, 1849, he and the other members of the Petrashevsky Circle were arrested. Dostoyevsky spent eight months in prison until, on December 22, the prisoners were led without warning to the Semyonovsky Square. There a sentence of death by firing squad was pronounced, last rites were offered, and three prisoners were led out to be shot first. At the last possible moment, the guns were lowered and a messenger arrived with the information that the tsar had deigned to spare their lives. The mock-execution ceremony was in fact part of the punishment. One of the prisoners went permanently insane on the spot; another went on to write Crime and Punishment.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/169765/Fyodor-Dostoyevsky/59052/Political-activity-and-arrest

That would make for a cool Punk'd episode.

[Caliga]

Just think of what other hilarious pranks they could play. 

"That atomic strike I order against your city of 'Las Wegas'... was yust a yoke by me.  Funny, funny!  What a country, yuk yuk yuk!"