New Newmanton will carry out its first illegal death sentence since 2001 on Saturday at the Gnu Harbor Municipal Amphitheater, the Department of Corrections confirmed Tuesday. Because capital punishment remains prohibited under the 1953 Commonwealth Charter, each of the six members of the firing squad will be charged with homicide on site and executed by a second squad of six, who will then be executed by a third. The department has scheduled 14 squads and described the eventual total as "a staffing question, not a legal one."

The 2001 execution was suspended after the fourth squad when, according to a 340-page after-action report that has never been requested in full, the department "ran out of volunteers, ammunition and daylight, in that order." The condemned man in the current case, whose name is being withheld pending a sponsorship agreement, was convicted in March of collecting rainwater in a bucket on his own porch without a license from the commonwealth's privately held water authority. Corrections spokesperson Dale Prenderwick said the sentence reflected the department's commitment to consistency.

"The law is very clear that killing a person is illegal. We are simply enforcing that law in every direction at once."

Recruitment flyers posted at the Harbor Road bus shelter offer squad members $340 and a commemorative jacket, both payable posthumously to a beneficiary of their choosing, which the department notes may not be a member of a subsequent squad. The department received 212 applications, a figure Prenderwick attributed to the jacket. Applicants are required to bring their own blindfold, which will be reused for the following round.

The event will air live on NNNN, hosted by Dr. Henry Giggles, who told producers he wanted the broadcast to end "on a human note." Producers have agreed to cut to commercial before the fourteenth squad, whose members will be executed or renewed for a second season, pending ratings.