Utah lawmaker: Bring back firing squad executions

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- In the wake of a botched lethal injection in Oklahoma last month, a Utah lawmaker says he believes a firing squad is a more humane form of execution. And he plans to bring back that option for criminals sentenced to death in his state.

Rep. Paul Ray, a Republican from the northern Utah city of Clearfield, plans to introduce his proposal during Utah's next legislative session in January. Lawmakers in Wyoming and Missouri floated similar ideas this year, but both efforts stalled. Ray, however, may succeed. Utah already has a tradition of execution by firing squad, with five police officers using .30-caliber Winchester rifles to execute Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010, the last execution by rifle to be held in the state.

Ray argues the controversial method may seem more palatable now, especially as states struggle to maneuver lawsuits and drug shortages that have complicated lethal injections.

"It sounds like the Wild West, but it's probably the most humane way to kill somebody," Ray said.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_UTAH_FIRING_SQUAD?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-17-02-29-00

[Judi Lynn]

1. Now guns are touted as the "most humane way to kill somebody!"

God bless A.P. for sharing what this exalted, transcendent being hath spoken.

[center][/center]
You know, whenever you want to kill someone, you don't want to be an ass about it and really torment him/her just because you can. Noooooooo. You must rise about that stuff, and have the state police gun him/her down, let him/her soak the earth where he/she stood with his/her blood.

That IS the Republican way. They are saints, aren't they?

[jmowreader]

16. Compared to lethal injection, he's probably right

A LOT of people who've died by lethal injection were stabbed repeatedly for many minutes because it isn't easy to find a vein in an IV drug addict...which many murderers are. The drugs don't work as advertised a lot of the time. People wake up during the second one. And it takes a while for that shit to take effect. Ask Joseph Clark how humane the lethal injection is...this is the guy in Ohio that asked for something by mouth to end it.

OTOH, you let someone get shot with rifles by five expert marksmen, he dies right then. If you HAVE to have a death penalty, firing squad is better than lethal injection.

[Shemp Howard]

18. Here's something else to add to the mix.

It's not unknown for a condemned prisoner to deliberately dehydrate himself before a lethal injection execution.

[jmowreader]

19. To make it even harder for the guards to put the needles in, correct?

[Shemp Howard]

25. Yes, that's the idea. nt

[Exposethefrauds]

2. What took them so long? I was wondering when they were finally going to to go back to firing squad

and hangings to murder it's citizens.

Soon this will be legislation in all the red states where murdering it's citizens is considered sport.

[7962]

3. When you get surgery they put you to sleep. Why cant they just do that and give too much??

[warrior1]

4. It's un-ethical

That's the problem they've been having. I can't get the drugs from drug companies and doctor's have taken oaths against do harm. That's why all the secrecy about what kind of drugs they are using.

Rachel Maddow has been covering this story for a couple of weeks since the botched execution in OK.

IMO, just give them life in prison.

[SoapBox]

5. Kill, Kill, Kill!

Pukes LOVE that killing!

[SallyAnn]

6. Some people deserve it.

I'm not a puke, but I do believe some people deserve to be executed. Any person molesting a child, any rapist who rapes a child or an elderly woman, anyone who kills another person on purpose, those types should be executed, as they contribute nothing but pain and misery to our society. However, they do need a fair trial first, and be found guilty by a jury of their peers. Then take them out and execute them right away. Quit wasting the taxpayer's money coddling these monsters.

[Jazzgirl]

7. Major fail.

NT

[They_Live]

24. So you admit a bloodlust

for "anyone who kills another person on purpose". See the irony there?

It's also more expensive to execute than for them to serve a life sentence.

...and also that "fair trial" thing has been an issue in many death penalty cases.

[randys1]

26. Nah,death penalty is wrong and bullshit

I get the emotion behind the desire but many things in life are simple

wrong...no question

Now, what might help is if we televised some brutal thing like firing squad, let the people see exactly what it is they are saying they want and is being done in their name

[marble falls]

8. Only if he's the first in line.

[KansDem]

9. Great!

Start with those murderers who lied us into war, killing 100,000s of people!

Oh, wait...you meant those "other" murderers?

I see...as long as you won't include all murderers, then f*ck you and your firing squad!

[BootinUp]

10. Palatable? Interesting way of putting it congressman.

[Comrade Grumpy]

11. Why not a public hanging? Bring a picnic basket, take the whole family.

It's so traditional.

[jmowreader]

20. And fun!

[LeftyMom]

12. "Blood atonement" is a Mormon thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_atonement#Relation_to_capital_punishment_in_Utah

[Tom Ripley]

21. ^^^THIS^^^

[Paladin]

22. See Norman Mailer's "The Executioner's Song".....

...for a good write-up on the whole blood atonement thing, and firing squads. (Great book about Gary Gilmore.)

[freshwest]

13. The N R A endorses this message! Guns are the answer for everything! n/t

[Comrade Grumpy]

14. If it was good enough for Joe Hill...

[Turbineguy]

15. Republicans....

always looking to a better way to kill people.

[randys1]

27. Indeed, jobs? Nah, how needs em. Climate change research? nah, who needs it

what we need to spend our money on and even defy courts for is killing people

the republican way

Have I mentioned lately that if you are still a republican you are an enemy of humankind?

[quadrature]

17. seems more dignified than jabbing your typical ...

IV drug user with a needle for an hour to find a vein.

[allan01]

23. hem

no one has shown me that excicutions have detereed crime .

[COLGATE4]

28. Certainly deters future crime

by the executed felon.

[libdem4life]

29. If we're going to do this dastardly deed, then bring back the guillotine and televise it.

People want blood, then let them see blood and "heads rolling". That's even quicker than a firing squad. Let those who called for the death penalty all cut the rope as a death team, like a WalMart opening.

I think this is sarcasm, but not quite sure. Like war, we keep them going mainly because we're "protected" from the ugliness and despotism and pure, heartless bloodshed.

I cannot ever get "unsee" the photo of the little naked Vietnamese girl burning with napalm that literally ended the Vietnam War.

I cynically believe that it was allowed only because the higher ups wanted the very expensive war they had thought would be another cakewalk to stop and needed to sway back the public opinion to sanity in order to support them in ending the war. But, no matter the reason, she was being disfigured by our tax dollars, although amazingly, she did survive.