(The execution chamber at the Utah State Prison after Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by a firing squad in 2010. Gardner was the last person to be executed by firing squad in the United States. The bullet holes are visible in the wood panel behind the chair. Photo: AP)
Utah has become the first State to allow the execution of death row inmates by firing squad.
Governor Gary Herbert signed the new law after a close battle that ended in a 39-34 vote in the State’s House of Representatives. The law gives the governor the power to call for an execution by firing squad if hard-to-get drugs for lethal injection are unavailable.
Numerous states have suspended death sentences indefinitely citing difficulty obtaining the right drugs and the inhumanity of some lethal injection doses.
Utah, however, doesn’t intend to let death row inmates get away with murder:
The police force that guards the desert state of Utah will soon ask for volunteers from among its members for a particularly macabre duty.
Five-man firing squads are to be formed and trained in preparation for a move that critics say risks dragging America back to a ‘more barbaric past’.
Facing a crisis in the lethal injection system by which most Death Row inmates are normally executed, Utah’s leaders have just approved a solution that harks back to the violent spirit of its Wild West past.
…
The state has become the first to bring back the firing squad. Gary Herbert, Utah’s Republican governor, conceded that he found the concept ‘a little bit gruesome’, but stressed that it would be used only if injection drugs are not available 30 days before a scheduled execution.
Yet such a scenario looks increasingly likely. Thirty-two states still have the death penalty, and America’s Death Rows are clogged with more than 3,000 condemned prisoners because of a string of botched lethal injections. These have allowed lawyers to halt the scheduling of supposedly painless executions on the grounds that they breach a constitutional ban on ‘cruel and unusual’ punishment.
…
To make matters worse, supplies of the sedatives used are drying up. Many of the most effective drugs are made only in Europe, but the EU has told manufacturers they cannot sell them if they are to be used for lethal injections.
U.S. drug manufacturers have already stopped making them, worried about being associated with executions as a growing proportion of Americans come out against the death penalty.
Utah just sent a message to murderers: If you kill someone, you’re going to be executed one way or the other.
There are those who claim that a firing squad is cruel and unusual punishment, but they are often the same people who claim that lethal injection and the concept of the death penalty are also cruel. Of course, they often fail to bring up the cruelty of the crime that led to the conviction to begin with.
Bill sponsor Paul Ray, a republican, disagrees with those who call it cruel. “A team of trained marksmen is faster and more humane than the drawn-out deaths that have occurred in botched lethal injections,” he argues.
A report from the Associated Press explains how the firing squad works:
The prisoner is seated in a chair that is set up in front of a wood panel and in between stacked sandbags that keep the bullets from ricocheting around the room.
A target is pinned over the inmate’s heart. Shooters aim for the chest rather than the head because it’s a bigger target and usually allows for a faster death, said Utah Rep. Paul Ray, who sponsored the proposal.
The prisoner is offered a two-minute window to offer final words.
…
Five shooters set up about 25 feet from the chair, with their .30-caliber Winchester rifles pointing through slots in a wall. Assuming they hit their target, the heart ruptures and the prisoner dies quickly from blood loss.
Images via CBS :
What do you think? Cruel and unusual punishment? Or is this method of execution just as humane as lethal injection?
Good. There are many ways to get the job done on those that truly deserve it.
All of the dollar haters here, and those who wrongly believe that the dollar will die: that the demise of the dollar will begin when the business cycle ends; I strongly suggest that you read this article at Zero Hedge and understand it.
It will save you a lot of grief, weeping, and gnashing of teeth. 🙂
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-03-27/will-cash-always-be-trash-or-will-it-one-day-be-king
Good article dk. Under the fact that there will be fewer dollars, but they may transform into digital dollars.
Dunjin: I don’t see digital dollars as viable for the PTB until quantum computing is perfected. That’s still a few years out. 🙂
The article fails to mention that death rows in the US are clogged up because of the appeals process these hotshot lawyers always use to full advantage. Some of those animals have been waiting for execution for as long as 30 years or more. I say cut the appeals process to one time only. If he/she lose that one appeal, that’s it, you get fried, period! No more screwing around. Either shit or get off the pot!
I agree. Such a broken system. We’ll sort it out though. Someday
Actually I think we should use CRAZY FERNANDO and his singing weedeater. Why not put a 30-06 pointing up in the seat? Cure hemorrhoids and save 4 rds of ammo.
Local murder case here, so far has cost $12 million dollars. $2 million for prosecution and $10 million for defense. This is for two druggie teens who slaughtered an entire family, with no question of their guilt. Defense has been spending money for years, now, once the verdict is in they will start spending tax money on appeals.
Damn funny they don’t have any problem killing millions of babies in this Country, and on top of that they don’t worry about how humane it is. But some cold blooded murderer, for heavens sake,sure hope he don’t suffer any, if per chance out of the thousands of murderers he should finally happen to get the Death Penalty. Trekker Out.
I say, Take the hood off so you can hit the fable T mark, thus immediate death by severing the spinal cord. Inhumane, No, if they are on death row, wen need to volunteer and clean the prisons out. Thus we cave tax payers money and the families effected by the crime have closure sooner. I fell if the evidence is beyond a shadow of doubt (DNA, Video etc.) then execute immediately and save the tax payers while sending a message to the would be criminals, you will be delt with swiftly and permanently.
Why are we using pharmaceuticals such as pentathol and potassium chloride? Go talk to Uncle Sam. The U.S. military has several nerve agents that act in less than a second and are 100 percent effective. Oh…maybe Uncle Sam doesn’t want to admit that such things exist?
if theyre gonna die , might as well save us some taxpayer money. bullets are cheaper than their drugs
can we get this passed for Traitors too?.. especially political traitors and people of power who are and have abused their offices and power?
at the rate we are going there’s just not going to be enough rope
That responsibility will be on us. I say the sooner the better.
I agree.
“Inhumanity of lethal injection doses? Using firing squads will take us back to a more barbaric past?” The libturds who cry that shit can go f#$% themselves! I’m sick of seeing any truly barbaric criminals, especially black ones, get off so easy for their crimes. What they’ve done and still do to their victims is barbaric. However, the NAACP, the ACLU, and other supporters of crime don’t care one iota about that. Kudos to the State Of Utah for doing something sensible for a change
Dunjin, confederate, and EOS, I’d have no problem giving each one a bullet to the head and be done with it.
EOTS-
“can we get this passed for Traitors too?.
HOW LONG before WE are the traitors ?
In Obamas eyes , we already are.
The government currently see’s things a bit different.
Hows it feel to be an insurgent ? A traitor ?
An Anarchist , A terrorist ?
Because thats the way its all gonna roll out .
Hammerhead, I feel proud and honored to be on a govt. “shit list”. But WE have lists of our own as well. Lists work 2 ways, something these federal morons don’t realize. Double-edged sword.
Dammit! Going to Zion in July. I’d better watch how I treat these young ladies if they be shootin dudes now. The death penalty DAMN SURE DOES work as a crime deterrent.
Going to do the Subway, the Narrows, and Angel’s Landing at least. Shit looks beautiful on paper.
If anyone knows any other good canyons at Zion I want to hear it. I’ve never been canyoneering before. I’m honestly not sure I’m up to Heaps and Imlay but I have a lot of testosterone thanks to the organic food so we’ll see.
AE: Canyon lands in July? Don’t get washed away in a flash flood during the monsoon. The walls are steep and the washes dangerous. 🙂
The Narrows is 3000 ft of sandstone. The floodplane is about 25 miles I think. A flash flood would definitely kill you. This hike is unlike anything I have done. 15 miles with feet immersed and no exit if shit goes wrong.
Angels Landing looks amazing.
I might save up to buy a GoPro so I can start posting my adventures on youtube.
You old people would be blinded at just how good-looking I am. I am pumpin’ iron.
You should post some proof that you were at the cave of the mounds last week. I’d like to see that, since its closed right now. Fukkin douch
Acid you are pumping BS.
AE: Sandstone cliffs are incredible slippery, wet or dry. One missed step and ….. well can you say, “Wiley E Coyote”? 🙂
Saw I guy go over the cliff at Lake Powell once from a few hundred feet up. Splat!!! 🙁
See, DK can pick up on bullshit. Anyone with any experience with white water knows that would be a raging torrent in July, and you have to be qualified to even be let on the river. What a sad little girl.
Sounds like you put together another make believed road trip like you did last week. You’re so full of shit. Let me guess, we’re supposed to think you’re cool when you tell us about your fairytale adventures? Like last week you said you went to five different places in Wisconsin. Myself and a couple other people here called bullshit due to the fact that theses places were so far apart you would still be driving! Like when you said you went tothe cave of the mounds. Really, bbecause I’m from there and I know that the whole state park of blue mounds is closed until April, and the cave itself opens in July. I grew up there, I know. So you still gonna say you went there? Haha! You’re so damn pathetic son! You have to sit there in your moms basement and make shit up so some people on the internet will think you’re cool? I bet you don’t even like yourself man. A couple days ago you said you were going to rape my two year old daughter. You are faggity little child molester and there’s a special spot in hell for you bitch. Haha, have fun on your “trip”.
Dunjin, acid is a real piece of work. I’ve dared him once in the past to come to where I live and try something with me. All I ever heard was crickets. Typical sodomite.
For real man!! He’s got major mental issues. Seriously, I figured it out though, he puts together these intricate adventures online and then brags to us about his fake ass life. I bet he never leaves his mothers house! Haha! How pathetic. Yeah I’d sure like to stomp a mud hole in his ass and march it dry, but I know he has a rude awakening coming when he wakes up in hell. I like to think there is hope for everyone, but I think in this case its just like the bible says, some men’s hearts will be hardened and they couldn’t be saved even if they wanted to. I kinda feel bad for him…..baaaaahh, no I don’t, hah!
Dunjin, I don’t feel bad for him, period. No way I could.
Actually, Braveheart, Acid is Barry’s bath house Czar.
Granny; Good one!
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! POG, that’s cold, but one of the best ones I’ve ever heard. I take my hat off to you, ma’am.
DUNJIN-
DID HE REALLY THREATEN TO RAPE YOUR CHILD ???
If this is true , then the person that posts as AE needs to be put into deep sleep cycle.
HEY ! ACID –
Gimme your address MFer .
I could not be more upset .
See ya in hell.
He did indeed. He’s probably just some twelve year old who fucks with people because he hates himself so much. I see suicide in his future.
“He’s probably just some twelve year old who fucks with people ”
I hope your right.
I cannot tell you how pissed off i am .
ZERO TOLERANCE for that BS .
If that threat was made to me , i would be searching…..
And it wouldnt be hard to find him .
Oh I was livid. And I wish I knew how to find him. He’ll say the wrong thing to someone someday. I just wish I could be there when that day comes.
There are organisations that search out posters that threaten violence.
Just sayin…..
A pedophile/ stalker aint nuthin i would fool with.
When someone threatens my family , hell gets unleashed and this pevert poster should not be allowed to continue.
Its very personal to me.
Good luck
I never made any such comment.
None of my detractors ever post any meaningful advice, only hateful rants.
I said that I went to Milwaukee last Sept. or Oct., not recently.
Go to hell PEDOPHILE
hey NSA , Why not do something usefull ?
Put a pedophile in jail .
Wow, you are such a liar!! It was like two days ago fag. Anyone can go look. Just shut up queer. Really.
You’ll spend time in hell Acid…getting whipped by old people!
Acid, all of the ‘old timers’ here always post meaningful things. On occasion, you do post some interesting prepping tips and those are appreciated. but the rest of your posts are just propaganda. If we want propaganda we’ll go to the MSM sites.
No one has ever been wrongly incarcerated in Utah, it is against the law.
Better to spare ten guilty men than to kill one innocent.
Quite the pickle, no matter how it’s done, with modern DNA evidence exonerating some death row inmates.
Who said that? And when those 10 guilty kill several more? Let God be perfect, kill the bastards. Get enough of them and a lot fewer innocent people will die
I fail to see why nobody has suggested putting the perp in a small enclosed space and filling it with an inert gas, say, argon. Asphyxiation in such a case is fairly quick and utterly painless. CO2 does not build up in the lungs, so there is no panting reflex. The subject simply falls asleep, and after a while wakes up dead. If argon costs too much, use nitrogen.
I agree.
I agree coach, awhile back I seen a doc about a new pig trap that used co2 in an enclosed trough. It worked brilliantly! The wild hog came up to eat, started to pass out and backed away like “wtf”, then went back to eating until he just died. Very good idea.
That “Doctor Death” (Kevorkian) in Detroit a few years ago was using CO2 for his “assisted suicides’. Only problem, and it’s a minor one, is that high concentrations of CO2 cause the “panting” or “gasping” reflex to kick in. Like holding your breath for too long. If the animal continues to respire normally, the CO2 is purged from the lungs, so no reflex.
Thing is, it’s about as humane as you can get, and cheap. Linde (the welding gas people) practically give away liquid nitrogen, since it’s a byproduct of their cryogenic fractionation process.
Take them up to 30,000 feet and throw them out of an airplane. That way you didn’t kill them at all. The stop did. I’m tired of giving the scum all the effort and letting the good people pay for it.
Death by firing squad is probably the quickest and most effective form of execution in the United States today.
The only problem I have with the death penalty is an innocent man might be executed.
They’re already executing people on the streets by firing squads….. Oh I’m sorry I see the article states that they’ve been convicted first. I got confused..’ol dopey me……http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Unarmed-man-shot-16-times-files-20-million-suit-against-Dept-of-Corrections-214998791.html
BTW, this guy did win his lawsuit recently. Good thing both officers were piss-poor shots.
Ricardo,
You are right. In my business I sometimes work in manufacturing plants that use industrial gasses. People may not think of nitrogen as being dangerous because air is mostly nitrogen, but if you somehow wander into a place where you are breathing pure N2, you will be out like a light before you can say a word. It’s not uncommon, like if a worker thinks a tank has been vented out when it hasn’t. Happened at a place I was.
Happened at a place I worked in back in the early ’70s. Man working alone in a tank which had held argon, and it wasn’t fully purged.
When I got there, I was given that same job, but I had to wear a man-harness and be hooked to a hoist manned by someone who stayed out outside, so they could haul me out if I keeled over. I would personally purge the tank before I would go in. That was pre-OSHA.
There are better ways. But we have a DEATH penalty to try and scare people into not committing crimes that call for the death penalty.
Old Coach:
My friend, I can’t see someone getting off easy for let say raping and murdering a child. That SOB should get the worst type and the cruelest we can dish out.
Sgt.
Sarge, I’d be happy to execute the bastards. One quick shot to the head for each one. Hell, I’d even provide the ammo. ASMS Braveheart
A sealed execution room where the oxygen is slowly removed can easily be done, with little cost. The condemned just painlessly passes out. In fact, there is a sense of euphoria & elation as the oxygen is depleted, and just before passing out. Divers, pilots, mountain climbers have all experienced it. Now why do you suppose this method is not used, or even proposed. Like everything else in this sick corrupted world…IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY..!!!!!!!!
J, I could go along with that method in order to save bullets if there was a severe shortage. All I’m saying is bring back consequences for serious crimes.
Once a person is on death row for committing some heinous crime, I can’t say that I’d want to waste one penny more than I actually had to on him/her. Then again, I only believe in the death penalty in the most severe and drastic circumstances, like premeditated, mass, serial or unusually cruel instances of murder…proven beyond reasonable doubt without police or prosecutorial misconduct.
Even then, since I know how the system really works, I have my doubts. I too would rather see a guilty man in prison for life instead of the death penalty, rather than an innocent man put to death. I think the days of proving old cases innocent using DNA will come to an end soon. The reason this is happening, is because DNA evidence testing was not available when those old crimes were committed …now, it is. The death penalty should be a very difficult sentence to hand out, and only in the most extreme cases. I never trusted the “just us” system, and I have no reason to start now.
A head shot would get it done faster if there’s any real concern about cruelty. Cost is the same, it’s just faster in the head than the heart. But I recall there being some kind of Mormon ‘splill his blood on the ground’ thing being associated with Utah firing squad executions. Perhaps a head shot doesn’t fit that bill…
How about a captive-bolt gun like they use in slaughterhouses?
TH. Are you for real? Sheeeesh!
I’ve always figured that justice would be best served by executing murders using they same means they used to murder their victims.
Anything other than murder shouldn’t merit execution.
A penal colony on a deserted island with no way off could be utilized for the worst offenders.
Survival of the fittest would be the rule with limited food and water dropped in for the population.
Corrupt Politicians, Bankers mixed in with career criminals all on the same small island. Could be a great money maker in the form of a reality show.
VT. thats what i call servivor!!! Not that stupid shit show they have now!!!
A show like that would get top ratings consistently.
There is no such Island. Only dead is dead.
I’d like to know how they figured out that there is such a thing as a painfull suffering inhumane death. If you think about it pain is realy just a memory and if your dead you cant have a memory!! Furthermore for those that say wat about the wrongly convicted if that is the case then if they beleive in the lord they will be fine, they will have there place and vindication. If they don’t beleive thats there bad!!Aside from all of that I truly beleive that we should bring back public hangings!!6 strand hemp is the greatest deturent to criminal behavior!!
Caedite eos! Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius.
The US Government Is Nothing More Than a Terrorist Crime Syndicate NOW.
The Lethal Injection Drugs they are using are Just Part of the Governments’ Plan to Terrorize Citizens, Threatening Them With Death By Torture, as they have plenty of Criminal Homeland Security Personnel engaging in Planting Of Property in Peoples’ Premises and Vehicles Now.
WORSE CRIMINALS ARE RUNNING HOMELAND SECURITY AND OTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCIES THAN MOST OF THE PEOPLE IN PRISONS AND JAILS NOW!!!!
FOR YEARS They have been rewarding and promoting CIA and military personnel from black sites, torture/detention facilities and special ops covert, elite criminal operations into Homeland Security Agencies and Law Enforcement Positions where they can continue to politically target citizens for covert targeted surveillance crimes and assassinations.
There are too many criminals and psychopaths in Homeland Security agencies and Law Enforcement. We have nothing but a big organized crime syndicate with the criminals running the Government now.
Many of these War Criminals from the military, and CIA, would have been tried and executed for war crimes if they were involved in Torture and War Crime activities in WWII, like what has been happening in the torture centers, detention facilities and black sites.
NOW THE US GOVERNMENT JUST PROMOTES THEM!!
Money is being dumped into So-Called Law Enforcement, Homeland Security Agencies and “Contractors” funding POLITICAL TARGETING & CRIMES AGAINST TARGETED CITIZENS. It has gone way beyond targeted IRS audits on politically targeted groups. Homeland Security Agencies personnel are involved in surveillance targeted burglaries, vandalism and (in my case also Pet Torture) as well as the planting of stolen and unknown origin property.
We have nothing but criminals running the US Government and Homeland Security agencies now. They are gutting the economy and will eventually leading this country into an economic collapse.
The problem is that everyone in the US is AFRAID of the REAL TERRORISTS running the country.
I know, because I’ve been a victim of TARGETED COVERT SURVEILLANCE CRIMES, which involved networked ex-military, and Homeland Security agency personnel who have been targeting other individuals like Kay Griggs, Michael Hastings, Phillip Marshall, Judi Bari and as well as myself. ( You can watch Kay Griggs videos on YouTube free. )
So-Called Civil and Constitutional Rights Organizations are USELESS AND HAVE BEEN CORRUPTED FROM WITHIN. Nobody wants to get involved or help. I know because I’ve been turned down in my requests for help to the ACLU repeatedly (several times in years, even before the targeted surveillance burglaries began in 2011, when I was just trying to get my activist FOIAed FBI files).
The BORDC, and numerous other organizations who I contacted for help have all turned me down for help.
If you can see what is going on in this country now, you know that the government dictatorship take over is progressing and can’t be stopped now. The only hope is to leave the country now.
Since 2011, I’ve been targeted for surveillance burglaries, vandalism, pet torture, vehicle tampering as well as the planting of stolen and unknown origin property and malicious prosecution. My safe deposit box was even burglarized. No one would help me, out of the dozens and dozens of organizations and attorneys I’ve contacted. I can’t get my FOIA Requests fulfilled for information on my surveillance “Watch List” targeted crimes and it’s even common knowledge in Washington state that Homeland Security personnel are involved in my targeted surveillance crimes.
REMEMBER THIS WHEN THEY COME FOR THE REST OF YOU, and they rob you using their surveillance technology and personnel in their targeted covert operations inside the US.
I believe the only hope people have is to get out of the country before the dollar collapses. As a targeted activist, who can’t find an attorney or a civil rights or constitutional rights organization to help me, my only hope is to leave the country. My cruise control stopped working on my 140 mile trip back from Spokane WA, on Thursday February 26th- a month ago, and I was gang stalked on the road by multiple vehicles (one of them with a Big Transformer Decal on the Back Window, one with a Big US “Infantry” sticker on his back window, as well as by WA license plate # WEPLAY2) and after they all turned off and I got past Colville, WA, I tried my cruise control again and it started working. I know they have had remote control over my car alarms on my vehicles for a long time now, and it looks to me that they can also remote control my cruise control as well now……
NO ONE IS GOING TO HELP YOU WHEN THEY COME FOR YOU — I recommend to everyone: GET OUT OF THE COUNTRY NOW, before it’s too late.
There is no such thing as humane killing. That’s why killing should only be done in self defense.
State sanctioned murders are just Ritual Human Sacrifice with a new name.
I don’t trust the State, and neither should you, if you value your individuality.
There are better ways to handle disputes, such as Natural Law Courts. In a Natural Law Court, the defendant is ordered to pay compensation if found guilty. If they do not pay compensation, then the Natural Law Court revokes the convicted person’s right to hearings in Natural Law Court, and as a result it is in effect “open season on their ass”.
Such a system gives people the opportunity to make amends for their crimes, while avoiding the asinine Prison-Industrial Complex that further penalizes the victims (taxpayers) by forcing them to pay for an inmate’s incarceration. It also takes the blood off of the public’s and the victim’s hands for dealing with any delinquent convicts who refuse to pay their compensation bill (or gives victims the opportunity to seek a more personal readdress of their grievances in that case).
Do not make the mistake of thinking that compensation would be cheap, either. We are talking hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in compensation for the more serious offenses. The criminal is then presented with a choice: become a productive member of society and pay your debt to your victims, or deal with the inevitable armies of bounty hunters and aggrieved victims headed your way.
A humane way to execute a criminal?
WOW!!!…doesn’t anybody remember
GARY GILMORE
Gary Mark Gilmore (December 4, 1940 – January 17, 1977) was an American criminal who gained international notoriety for demanding the execution of his death sentence for two murders he committed in Utah. After the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a new series of death penalty statutes in the 1976 decision Gregg v. Georgia, he became the first person executed in the United States in ten years. [1]
These new statutes avoided the problems under the 1972 decision in Furman v. Georgia that had led earlier death penalty statutes to be deemed as “cruel and unusual”, and therefore unconstitutional, resulting in all states being ordered to commute death sentences to life imprisonment. Gilmore was[2]
EXECUTED BY FIRING SQUAD!
The real problem is now “how”, but “who”.
An efficient means of execution can be devised of course.
The problem is that governments are the ones doing the executing. Governments are entities filled with the stupidests, most vicious elements of society.
Do honest, hard-working ordinary people really want these people to have the power of life or death over them?
“CHOP BLOCK IS BEST”
bring back the french guillotine. it’s simple, requires no power , no chemicals and with a timed release requires no human interaction as a actual executioner.
it’s quick and more humane than most.
Messy, though. Gallons of blood to clean up.
Let the victims of the crimes decide the method of execution.
“…Amendment 8’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishments implies the Constitutional Republic’s punishments must be kind and usual. The Constitution’s failure to define “cruel and unusual” allows unbiblical and antinomian courts to arbitrarily determine what is allowable….”
For more, see online Chapter 17 “Amendment 8: Bail, Fines, and Cruel and Unusual Punishments” of “Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective” at http://www.bibleversusconstitution.org/BlvcOnline/biblelaw-constitutionalism-pt17.html.