http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8641280.stm

Quote :

" Utah murderer Gardner chooses death by firing squad When given a choice between lethal injection or being shot, Ronnie Lee Gardner told the judge: "I would like the firing squad, please." Of the 35 US states that have the death penalty, Utah is the only one to give firing squads as an option. Critics say the method is a relic from the state's Wild West past and should be abolished. Should the execution go ahead, it is likely to garner a media storm, says the BBC's Madeleine Morris in Washington says. The judge in Salt Lake City set the execution date for 18 June, but Gardner's lawyer said he would appeal. Gardner, 49, killed a lawyer in a shootout while trying to escape from a courthouse in 1985. He would be only the third man to be killed by firing squad since the Supreme Court allowed states to have the death penalty in 1976. Death row convicts in Utah were for decades allowed to choose their method of execution. State legislators removed that choice in 2004 and made lethal injection the standard method - but inmates sentenced before then still have a choice. "

4/23/2010 4:08:28 PM

i guess i'd rather get shot too. sometimes fat people dont die from the lethal injection

4/23/2010 4:10:43 PM

Quote :

"Critics say the method is a relic from the state's Wild West past and should be abolished"

If they think its inhumane or something and want it to be abolished because of that, I don't agree, but ok

But just because its "a relic from the state's Wild West past" doesn't sound like any kind of reason to get rid of it

4/23/2010 4:12:07 PM

What a psycho.

I guess he wants to know what it's like to get shot to death.

4/23/2010 4:13:21 PM

whatever, death is death


why would you want your last contact with a human to be a dude sticking you with a needle hooked up to a bunch of poison?

4/23/2010 4:14:44 PM

^^ i would choose it too, for that reason.

i am curious about what it feels like to get shot (and to be bitten by a non-poisonous snake).

however, in this case though, you would pretty much die instantly so that wouldn't satisfy my curiosity.

4/23/2010 4:17:10 PM

I don't think he's a psycho.

I'd probably want the firing squad too.

If the state's gonna murder me, I don't want them to pervert the process with drugs so they can feel more humane about taking my life.

4/23/2010 4:18:54 PM

I love it

Bring back hanging, stoning and burning at the stake while we're at it

Who doesn't like a little variety?

4/23/2010 4:19:02 PM

After being locked up since 1985, I'd probably choose the firing squad. If nothing else, you'd get to be outside one last time.

Seems pretty fitting though, since he shot somebody.

[Edited on April 23, 2010 at 4:20 PM. Reason : ]

4/23/2010 4:20:41 PM

If thats how he wants to be put to death, more power to him.




And who cares if its a 'relic from the state's Wild West past'?

4/23/2010 4:20:53 PM

what kind of non-venemous snake? big or small? constrictor?

[Edited on April 23, 2010 at 4:21 PM. Reason : .]

4/23/2010 4:21:01 PM

could y'all really not infer that calling something a "relic" implies it's an obselete way of killing people and ergo inhumane?

got some dense ones ITT

[Edited on April 23, 2010 at 4:22 PM. Reason : .]

4/23/2010 4:22:14 PM

i'd choose firing squad

4/23/2010 4:22:27 PM

^^how do you humanely kill someone

the whole concept is an oxymoron

4/23/2010 4:23:16 PM

i would choose firing squad over lethal injection.

4/23/2010 4:23:55 PM

Just because it implies a meaning doesn't make it correct.

4/23/2010 4:24:00 PM

damn, there have been 2 other firing squad executions since 1976? youd think there would be video somewhere

4/23/2010 4:26:40 PM

Quote :

"^^how do you humanely kill someone the whole concept is an oxymoron"

By not being egregiously inhumane, duh

4/23/2010 4:27:46 PM

I think you should get a choice of whatever you want. If you choose it, then the whole "OMG they are a victim" thing kind of goes out the window.

I'd pick a guillotine.

4/23/2010 4:27:46 PM

Relic? Don't they still do that in other parts of the world?

4/23/2010 4:28:09 PM

Quote :

"DEATH BY SNU-SNU"

4/23/2010 4:30:06 PM

...indeed.

4/23/2010 4:31:33 PM

Quote :

"what kind of non-venemous snake? big or small? constrictor?"

First a skinny 2 foot long grass snake just to get some adrenalin flowing... followed immediately by thick 6-10 foot long python/anaconda/boa.

I guess the best area to get it done would be the thigh or the shoulder or the love handles.

4/23/2010 4:33:37 PM

what the hell, I would support "firing squad" replacing "lethal injection" as the standard method of execution in America

if you're gonna take somebody's life, don't try to diminish the magnitude of it by going about it in a really subtle, elaborate way, with doctors, swabs, sterilized needles and chemicals

just blow their brains out...same result, and you've achieved it in a manner that is consonant with the enormity of it, and hides nothing

for me, executing somebody by lethal injection is like proposing via e-mail...it gets the job done, but the method is unworthy of the act

4/23/2010 4:33:56 PM

if you get to CHOOSE how you get killed, who cares if a voluntary (you know, as far as choosing your own death goes) is inhumane?

has anyone said that yet?

4/23/2010 4:37:26 PM

plus lethal injection has the ability to be inhumane if it doesnt work on somebody




but- the death penalty is WRONG anyway. I never voted for letting the state murder people.

4/23/2010 4:38:37 PM

at least with a firing squad you get to feel like you went down in a battle or war or something, plus there is just something extremely invasive and creepy with the whole lethal injection like you're at the doctor's office kind of thing

however how can they even be sure they would kill the guy instantly with a firing squad anyway? even if the guy's hit their marks he could still just kind of writhe on the ground wounded, what the hell would happen after that?

4/23/2010 4:41:44 PM

Quote :

"at least with a firing squad you get to feel like you went down in a battle or war or something"

They should give the accused a gun with blanks in it. To "shoot" back.

Quote :

"even if the guy's hit their marks he could still just kind of writhe on the ground wounded, what the hell would happen after that?"

He would go into shock, not feel anything, and die eventually.

[Edited on April 23, 2010 at 4:45 PM. Reason : -]

4/23/2010 4:44:50 PM

well, since the object of the whole exercise is for the guy to die i hope they follow it up with a headshot

4/23/2010 4:45:05 PM

I assure you, a shot through the heart will do the job.

4/23/2010 4:59:00 PM

Quote :

"if you get to CHOOSE how you get killed, who cares if a voluntary (you know, as far as choosing your own death goes) is inhumane? has anyone said that yet?"

that's like saying it's perfectly ok for me to kick you in the face because you chose to be kicked and not bitch slapped

4/23/2010 5:05:32 PM

it is.

One can also choose to not be kicked OR slapped.

If you choose to be kicked, then you've given consent.

4/23/2010 5:10:45 PM

im curious as to who would actually shoot the guy?

a team of officers? how many?

i heard with firing squads, sometimes only one guy has a live bullet and everyone else has blanks so its hard to determine who actually killed the guy .. not sure if thats real, source amnesia

4/23/2010 5:17:02 PM

^I've heard that every guy but one has a live bullet, so they all know that they might have gotten the blank

4/23/2010 5:18:28 PM

maybe they should just get people with no souls to be the executioner. hand me the gun

4/23/2010 5:20:13 PM

What's the purpose of having the blank?

4/23/2010 5:24:39 PM

so people dont have killing someone on their concious, they just tell themselves they had the blank

4/23/2010 5:27:15 PM

Quote :

"i guess i'd rather get shot too. sometimes fat people dont die from the lethal injection "

Quote :

"plus lethal injection has the ability to be inhumane if it doesnt work on somebody"

Where are you getting this? Has anyone ever actually survived lethal injection in the United States? A quick Google search only shows me one prisoner who has gone in for lethal injection and survived and his case was simply delayed because they couldn't find a vein suitable for the injections. In other words, they never actually gave him an injection; they just poked around in his arms for a couple of hours and sent him back to jail.

[Edited on April 23, 2010 at 5:33 PM. Reason : l]

4/23/2010 5:28:55 PM

that's pretty stupid

obviously they ALL killed him EXCEPT for one

if i was one of them, i wouldn't think "i had the blank", i would think "omg maybe i killed him".

anyway, if i was going to think like that i wouldn't be doing it in the first place. so maybe they should get people who are not pussies and who are not going to feel tormented?

4/23/2010 5:30:27 PM

You would think the state would want more folks to choose to be killed by the firing squad. I bet it would save the state a ton of money. A handfull of bullets is a lot cheaper than paying doctors to inject someone and do it correctly. I bet there are some militia folks in Utah that would volunteer to pull the trigger, so you wouldn't have to pay those folks either.

I'm not saying that one way is more humane than the other (or that I agree with the death penalty), but it seems like the firing squad would be much cheaper.

4/23/2010 5:31:02 PM

Firing squad is the more humane way to kill a man, especially if you aim for the head. A shot to the heart will do the job fine too, you'd just have a half minute or so to think about it. Firing squad by machine gun works great too, that's how they got rid of that Romanian president and his wife. First shot hit him in the knee.

4/23/2010 6:02:50 PM

^
I had a Romanian friend who explained that they emptied their machine-guns into him, reloaded, and then emptied them again

4/23/2010 6:19:23 PM

Decapitation is obviously the most humane way, though one of the bloodiest/grisliest.

4/23/2010 6:30:28 PM

message_topic.aspx?topic=582005

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/methods-execution

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/some-examples-post-furman-botched-executions


[Edited on April 23, 2010 at 6:33 PM. Reason : j]

4/23/2010 6:31:55 PM

I believe the key word here is... choice.

4/23/2010 6:47:40 PM

i am curious about what it feels like to get shot (and to be bitten by a non-poisonous snake).

4/23/2010 6:48:51 PM

Quote :

"that's like saying it's perfectly ok for me to kick you in the face because you chose to be kicked and not bitch slapped"

you can argue that it's inhumane to strike me, but if you're assuming that it's okay to strike me and give me the choice to be kicked or slapped, one is not worse than the other.

the fact that hitting me at all is inhumane is irrelevant to this topic.

4/23/2010 6:56:48 PM

I, too, would like to know who does the shooting.

4/23/2010 7:51:39 PM

Automated rifles on timer....but who would arm it?!

[Edited on April 23, 2010 at 8:17 PM. Reason : I think the worst part about being executed would be getting your ass plugged with cotton.]

[Edited on April 23, 2010 at 8:19 PM. Reason : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hvL0ZSixHQ]

4/23/2010 8:16:21 PM

Quote :

"JeffreyBSG: what the hell, I would support "firing squad" replacing "lethal injection" as the standard method of execution in America if you're gonna take somebody's life, don't try to diminish the magnitude of it by going about it in a really subtle, elaborate way, with doctors, swabs, sterilized needles and chemicals just blow their brains out...same result, and you've achieved it in a manner that is consonant with the enormity of it, and hides nothing for me, executing somebody by lethal injection is like proposing via e-mail...it gets the job done, but the method is unworthy of the act"

Exactly.

Very articulate as well.

4/23/2010 8:24:25 PM