Actually I did a little more reading (offline, no link unfortunately) and apparently in this execution four of the five firing squad members were firing live ro

Actually I did a little more reading (offline, no link unfortunately) and apparently in this execution four of the five firing squad members were firing live rounds, and one fired a blank. The reasoning for this is that each person can say "well, at least there's a chance that I fired the blank". Over time, each man will believe he fired the blank, to console himself. The weakness in this concept is that an experienced marksman will be able to tell the difference between a live round and a blank (more recoil from a live round).