Yes, the following passage contains a fused sentence error. The two independent clauses "On the day of his execution, he and his friends were lined up before a firing squad" and "the soldiers were about to execute them" are improperly joined without any punctuation or coordinating conjunction.
Yes, the passage contains a fused sentence error. A fused sentence occurs when two independent clauses are joined without proper punctuation or conjunction. In this case, the independent clauses "On the day of his execution, he and his friends were lined up before a firing squad" and "the soldiers were about to execute them" are joined together without any punctuation or conjunction. To correct this error, you can either separate the two independent clauses into two separate sentences or add a coordinating conjunction (e.g., "and") between the clauses. For example: "On the day of his execution, he and his friends were lined up before a firing squad. The soldiers were about to execute them." Or "On the day of his execution, he and his friends were lined up before a firing squad, and the soldiers were about to execute them."
