N.H. legislator: use firing squad for death penalty cases

[MnFats]

A Keene, N.H., lawmaker wants to expand New Hampshire’s death penalty to include more crimes, and make death by a firing squad the punishment in some cases.

The current law includes the murder of judges and law enforcement officials, as well as murder for hire, murder connected to certain drug offenses and murder during a rape. But Rep. Delmar Burridge, a Democrat, also wants to include murder during a robbery or other felony using a gun.

Under the bill he has sponsored, anyone convicted under that expansion would face a firing squad instead of lethal injection. He says threatening would-be murderers with a firing squad would be a more effective deterrent

site: http://news.bostonherald.com/news/national/northeast/view/2009_01_26_NH_Rep_:_expand_death_penalty__add_firing_squad/srvc=home&position=recent

[bunnies]

1. Fuck it. Lets just bring back the guillotine.

Why screw around? :sarcasm:

[backscatter712]

3. Can we use the guillotine for Madoff and the like?

:evilgrin:

[bunnies]

6. Damn skippy!

Gotta do it here in NH though. We *do* have our tourism to think about. :rofl:

[Taverner]

4. The irony is that the guillotine is more humane than the firing squad

[bunnies]

9. And definitely more humane than the electric chair...

or the needle. Not to mention, way cheaper.

[Taverner]

10. Yeah

The needle can be more humane

They need to make the first drug they inject morphine

That way if they screw up, at least he or she isn't in pain

[bunnies]

16. Yep.

Or put all that confiscated Heroine to good use. The 'war on drugs' might as well be good for something.

[Renew Deal]

19. In these tough economic times, can we afford the electricity?

:D

[bunnies]

23. See! The guillotine is the solution!

Its green! :hi:

[Renew Deal]

25. lol

:rofl:

[MnFats]

12. I'm not so sure... a bullet to the brain instantly stops brain activity

while, I believe, the brain continues to function for a few seconds after the head is severed.


I did NOT intend this thread to fall to such depths!
sorry. it's my bad

[endarkenment]

17. While that might be true

firing squads are provided a nice fat target over the heart. That is where they aim for.

[Renew Deal]

21. It's not your fault.

It just shows how dangerous people with power can be.

[varkam]

24. Firing squads don't shoot for the head, and headshots are not necessarily fatal.

and while it is true that the head continues to function for a few minutes with decapitation, you're not receiving any pain signals from your body and you're probably in too much shock to register pain anyway.

[bertman]

46. Taverner, please explain how the guillotine is more humane than the firing squad. That makes

zero sense to me.

[endarkenment]

5. We would have had to use it first in order to bring it back.

[bunnies]

11. details shmetails.

Bring on the head chopper!

[Statistical]

36. Firing squads were used in the United States just not very common

According to Executions in the U.S. 1608-1987 by M. Watt Espy and John Ortiz Smylka, it is estimated that 142 men have been judicially shot in the United States and English-speaking predecessor territories since 1608, excluding executions related to the American Civil War. The Civil War saw several hundred firing squad deaths, but reliable numbers are not available. Crimes punishable by firing squad in the Civil War included desertion, intentionally killing a superior officer or fellow soldier, and being a spy.
Firing squad history and laws in the U.S.
Color key: Secondary method only Once used firing squad, but does not today Has never used firing squad

Capital punishment was suspended in the United States between 1972 and 1976, as a result of several decisions of the United States Supreme Court (Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238). The process resumed with the execution of Gary Gilmore on January 17 1977, at Utah State Prison in Draper. The five executioners were equipped with .30-30 caliber rifles and off-the-shelf Winchester 150 grain (9.7 g) SilverTip ammunition. The condemned was restrained and hooded, and the shots were fired at a distance of 20 feet (6 m), aiming at the chest. In his biography Shot in the Heart, Mikal Gilmore wrote that when he examined the shirt worn by his brother Gary during the execution, he found five bullet holes, indicating that all members of the squad had been armed with live cartridges, and none with a blank round.

The only other post-Furman execution by firing squad, that of John Albert Taylor in 1996, also took place in Utah. Taylor is said to have chosen the firing squad because it would be awkward for state officials.

In Utah, the firing squad consisted of five volunteer police officers from the county in which the conviction of the offender took place. A law passed on March 15 2004 banned execution by firing squad in Utah, but since that specific law was not retroactive, four inmates on Utah's death row could still have their last requests granted. As of 2006, Idaho and Oklahoma are the only other states in which execution by firing squad is legally available (as backup methods only; both states use lethal injection as their primary methods of execution).

Hanging somehow became the preferred method of Capital Punishment in the United States for the majority of this country's history.

Guess I am not really sure which one I would pick if forced and given the choice: hanging or firing squad?

[endarkenment]

48. Yes of course but the Guillotine never was.

Which was what I was responding to. Now you have gone off and ruined a perfectly good snark.

[Statistical]

49. Oops. It was a pretty good snark. I would be mad too. (n/t)

[MnFats]

8. I was thinking more along the lines of burning at the stake

lots of last-second conversions.

[bunnies]

14. A fabulous New England tradition!

The fundies will love it. :rofl:

[SoxFan]

38. Feed criminals to wild dingoes

[surrealAmerican]

44. This is not Australia, we'll have to make due with coyotes.

[SoxFan]

50. I know! Different dogs for different offenses!

Murderers get coyotes (or dingoes).

Jaywalkers get thrown to a yellow lab. Death by slobber!

[tularetom]

2. I would extend it to failure to respond to a congressional subpoena

and I would volunteer to be on the squad. In fact I don't think a trial would even be required. Failure to respond would be in itself an admission of guilt and the sentence could be carried out as soon as Rove, er the perp was apprehended.

[Taverner]

7. Anyone notice that death penalty states have more murders and a higher crime rate

...than non-death penalty states?

So much for 'deterrent'

[Freddie Stubbs]

13. Or perhaps the higher murder rate has caused the voters of those states to elect politicians who

support the death penalty.

[varkam]

26. Were that true, you would expect to see the murder rate decline after these policies...

have been in place.

[Freddie Stubbs]

27. You are assuming that those who are dumb enough to commit murder are actually smart enough to

respond to changes in the law.

[varkam]

32. Kinda shoots the whole deterrent aspect of it then, doesn't it?

Moreover, a lot of murders are committed in the heat of the moment - not after a somber reflection.

[Freddie Stubbs]

33. But it does not shoot down the public's desire to see murderers put to death

[varkam]

35. What is right is not always popular, and what is popular is not always right.

The public probably desires a lot of things that are verboten under the USC. Hell, that's the whole reason for having a written constitution that is difficult to change - so that the minority does not become subject to the tyranny of the majority. Just judging from some of the posts I read around here, the public would have no problem torturing to death a sizable percentage of the population - that doesn't make it right.

[Freddie Stubbs]

42. But capital punishment is not one of the things verboten under the USC

The Supreme Court affirmed this in Gregg v. Georgia.

[varkam]

43. I'm not saying that it is.

What I am saying is that just because the public desires something doesn't mean that it's right in response to your comment about the popularity of the death penalty.

[Lorien]

41. Yep. And that's always been the case

We studied that in our college psychology courses. No one had the final word on why that is; some suspect that the prospect of life in prison is more of a deterrent to criminals than death.


On edit; after scanning this thread I have to wonder; when did Democrats become avid supporters of the death penalty?

That Tory was right; there is no "Left" in American politics.

[surrealAmerican]

45. It seems most of the responses here are sarcastic.

From other threads on DU, I would estimate about 2/3 of DU is anti-death penalty. I'd like to see it closer to 9/10, but we live in such a brutal society that revenge is the first thing most people think about, and they aren't encouraged to think beyond that.

[madrchsod]

15. how about --being drawn and quartered

[Renew Deal]

20. It's cheap.

We can charge for tickets. It's a revenue generator. Lets do it!

[nichomachus]

18. It is very important to remember

that the bar is set very very low when it comes to being elected to the NH legislature. It is pretty much a collection of human plankton.

[catnhatnh]

30. Ding Ding Ding!

We have a winner! NH has the largest legislature of any state and ole' Delmar is just one of 400 in the house (senate is 24). We generally send up a variety of loons and googling his name actually brings up some funny reading...After a constituent contacted him regarding decriminalizing marijuana he contacted the local PD and suggested they watch the guy!

That said we DO have the death penalty although the last execution was in 1939. We have executed 24 people since 1734 and currently have one inmate on death row...So essentially our entire experience with the death penalty is more like a busy month in Texas...

[nichomachus]

31. The only reason NH doesn't execute people

is because of the effect it would have on their electric bill.

NH State Motto: Live cheap and die young.

[Iggo]

22. Some Repubs are pist we're not more like the Taliban...

...or the Saudis.

[KamaAina]

28. This guy is a Dem!

:wtf:

[Iggo]

29. And some Dems, too!

[anonymous171]

34. How about the death penalty for financial fraud and corporate crimes?

[SoxFan]

37. Everybody chill out

I used to serve on the Criminal Justice Committee of the NH House. It's a model committee. The members take their jobs very seriously, and I am sure that this is going to be ITL'd (killed) rather hastily.

That was the funny thing about that committee. The bills that drew the biggest crowds and the most media attention were often the ones that took about 40 seconds of executive session deliberation to dispose of. We had a bunch of hard-lne immigration measures back in 2006. One guy, a 9-11 parent who had become something of a right-wing mini-celebrity, came to the hearing and accused the members, several of whom had backgrounds in law enforcement or the military, terrorist sympathizers. Lots of hoopla, but we killed the bill the next day.

Committee chairman Rep. Steve Shurtleff is a smart and compassionate guy, a former Deputy US Marshall who works his ass off as a legislator and a Concord city councilman. He will take care of this.

[MrSlayer]

39. I'm for it.

I'd also include violent rape and child rape as DP worthy offenses.

[bertman]

47. What Mr. Slayer said!!

[Blue_Tires]

40. first we must expand the DP to include blood-lusting politicians