Utah House Votes to Bring Back Execution by Firing Squad

[jimmy olsen]

Thumbs down for me. Guillotine would be a lot more humane, hanging more traditional.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/02/13/utah-executions-firing-squad/23378069/

Utah House votes to resurrect firing squads
Michael Winter, USA TODAY 3:11 a.m. EST February 14, 2015

With lethal injection under review by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Utah House of Representatives on Friday approved legislation to resume executions by firing squad, which were halted in 2004.

The bill, which narrowly cleared the Republican-controlled chamber, faces uncertain prospects in the GOP-dominated Senate, and Republican Gov. Gary Herbert has not said whether he would sign it into law.

The measure comes amid a shortage of execution drugs, which pharmaceutical companies are refusing to provide, and the Supreme Court's decision last month to block three executions in Oklahoma as it reviews the three-drug cocktail the state uses to put inmates to death.

In a notorious execution last April that has focused attention on lethal injection, Oklahoma murderer Clayton Lockett writhed, groaned and struggled before being declared dead of a heart attack 43 minutes after the drugs were injected.

Gruesome accounts of prolonged or botched executions with drugs were also widely reported in Arizona and Ohio.

The Utah bill proposes firing squads as a backup if specified drugs aren't available 30 days before an execution or if lethal injection is declared unconstitutional.

"It is never easy to talk about taking another life, but in our judicial system we have a means that requires that sometimes," said the bill's sponsor, Republican Rep. Paul Ray.

He believes that using trained marksmen is faster and more humane than the needle.

"We have to have an option," Ray said at a news conference Wednesday. "If we go hanging, if we go to the guillotine, or we go to the firing squad, electric chair, you're still going to have the same circus atmosphere behind it. So is it really going to matter?"

Until lawmakers changed the law after international criticism and media attention, condemned prisoners could choose death by firing squad.

Opponents again argue firing squads evoke crude Wild West justice and would tarnish the state's image.

Democratic Rep. Brian King, who voted against the measure, called gunshot executions "barbaric."

In an NBC poll after the botched Oklahoma execution, 12% backed firing squads. The most popular alternatives were the gas chamber (20%) and electric chair (18%). Only 8% endorsed hanging.

Oklahoma law also allows for firing squad -- but only if lethal injection and electrocution are ruled unconstitutional.

Worldwide, firing squads are also employed to execute criminals in Indonesia, Syria and the United Arab Emirates.

[Tonitrus]

I'd think gas would be the most humane way (Like carbon monoxide...it kills plenty of people by accident), but the Nazis pretty much forever tainted all forms of gaseous executions.

[Martinus]

Tyrants, fanatics and inhuman regimes have tainted death penalty for everyone.

[grumbler]

I'd think gas would be the most humane way (Like carbon monoxide...it kills plenty of people by accident), but the Nazis pretty much forever tainted all forms of gaseous executions.

Not really.  The gas chamber just measures how long someone can hold their breath when their life depends on it.

[CountDeMoney]

Firing squads.  How romantic.

[Syt]

Firing squads.  How romantic.

:habsburg:

[DontSayBanana]

I actually don't get the big deal.  Execution should be as close to instantaneous death as possible, and from what's been observed so far, a firing squad would be much closer to that than a lethal injection.

If they're really worried about a "wild west" image of justice, maybe they should really be considering the amount of convicts they execute instead.

[Admiral Yi]

How do they get trigger men?

[Zanza]

Maybe instead of a firing squad they could just shoot the person in the back of the head from close range?

[lustindarkness]

Better than the electric chair.

[Tonitrus]

Bring back lions.

[Syt]

I actually don't get the big deal.  Execution should be as close to instantaneous death as possible, and from what's been observed so far, a firing squad would be much closer to that than a lethal injection.

Shouldn't they go with a neck shot then?

[Syt]

I see Zanza and I both favor SS death squad executions. 

[lustindarkness]

I actually don't get the big deal.  Execution should be as close to instantaneous death as possible, and from what's been observed so far, a firing squad would be much closer to that than a lethal injection.

Shouldn't they go with a neck shot then?

Brain stem.

[Tonitrus]

Or even better, instead of execution, we can imprison convicts in giant caged hamster wheels to generate electricity.