US state of Utah to resume firing squad executions

[Palmares]

US state of Utah to resume firing squad executions

Decision to allow firing squads in absence of lethal-injection drugs criticised by rights groups.

24 Mar 2015 01:18 GMT | Human Rights (http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/categories/human_rights.html), US & Canada (http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/regions/us-canada.html), United States (http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/country/united-states.html)



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http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2015/3/24/5e530a855cd546d7aaef23b375a87b01_18.jpgThe last execution by firing squad was in 2010, when Ronnie Lee Gardner was put to death by five police officers [AP]The US state of Utah will allow firing squads for executions after state’s Governor Gary Herbert signed a law approving the method's use when no lethal-injection drugs are available.
Herbert has said on Monday that he finds the firing squad "a little bit gruesome," but Utah is a capital punishment state and needs a backup execution method in case a shortage of the drugs persists.
"We regret anyone ever commits the heinous crime of aggravated murder to merit the death penalty, and we prefer to use our primary method of lethal injection when such a sentence is issued," Herbert spokesman Marty Carpenter said.
"However, when a jury makes the decision and a judge signs a death warrant, enforcing that lawful decision is the obligation of the executive branch."
Drug problems
The measure's approval is the latest illustration of some states' frustration over bungled executions and difficulty obtaining the drugs. Utah is one of several states seeking new forms of capital punishment after a botched Oklahoma lethal injection last year.
States have struggled to keep up their drug inventories as European manufacturers opposed to capital punishment refuse to sell the components of lethal injections to US prisons.
The bill's sponsor, Republican Representative Paul Ray, argued that a team of trained marksmen is faster and more decent than the drawn-out deaths involved when lethal injections go awry - or even if they go as planned.
'Backward and backwoods'
Opponents of the measure say firing squads are barbaric, with the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah saying the bill makes the state "look backward and backwoods”.
Ralph Dellapiana, director of Utahns for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said it's a disgrace that state lawmakers are still talking about methods to execute people. The firing squad, in particular, is cruel, he said.
"It's an embarrassment to Utah," Dellapiana said. "We should be taking the moral lead on this. You can' be both pro-life and pro-death."
Utah lawmakers stopped offering inmates the choice of firing squad in 2004, saying the method attracted intense media interest and took attention away from victims.
Utah is the only state in the past 40 years to carry out such a death sentence, with three executions by firing squad since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
The last was in 2010, when Ronnie Lee Gardner was put to death by five police officers with .30-caliber Winchester rifles in an event that generated international interest and elicited condemnation from many.


http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2015/03/state-utah-resume-firing-squad-executions-150324010532501.html

[Vogel]

"We hate that we have to physically murder people instead of having a machine doing it for us"

[roses]

Be human. Abolish the death penalty.

[Os Cangaceiros]

What is the point of a firing squad anyway? A single gunshot to the back of the head seems a lot more effective and humane (as far as executions can be humane...)

[Palmares]

It's so they don't know who specifically killed the individual. I think they have maybe only a bullet, or similar, the other guns are blanks? Possibly both to prevent the shooter from knowing they killed someone, and... they other people don't know who killed them, thus not knowing who to "blame" for it.

I dunno, it's all pretty fucking stupid.




http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/Capital_punishment.PNG/500px-Capital_punishment.PNG (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Capital_punishment.PNG)
Legend
(BLUE) Abolished for all crimes - 103 (53%)
(GREEN) Abolished for all crimes except under exceptional/special circumstances (such as crimes committed in wartime) - 6 (3%)
(LIGHT BROWN) Not used in practice (under a moratorium or have not used capital punishment in at least 10 years) - 50 (26%)
(RED) Retainers of the death penalty in law and practice - 36 (18%)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_capital_punishment_by_country

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

It's so they don't know who specifically killed the individual.
Exactly. Back in the 1930s, my granduncle was a prison guard, and on more than one occasion he found himself part of a three-man execution team operating the electric chair. There were three switches, and they all pulled them at once, so no one would know who did the deed.

[Loony Le Fist]

If they are truly concerned about the humaneness of the death penalty (notwithstanding the humaneness of the state deciding who lives or dies) why not place the gun in their mouths pointed diagonally towards back of their head and pull the trigger. Its the most reliable and painless way. Of course, the real concern is ensuring that those pulling the trigger don't have to take personal responsibility for killing the individual. If you are truly convinced of someone's guilt of a heinous crime, why the hesitation or guilt?

Funny how the personal responsibility crowd talks up a storm, but yet they have to hide in a crowd when it's time to pull the trigger. They believe in socialism for murder. :laugh:

Besides, I'd say a pure Nitrogen gas chamber is the way to go. Hypoxia without traumatic asphyxia, i.e. no sensation of drowning or lack of air.

[Bala Perdida]

It's so they don't know who specifically killed the individual. I think they have maybe only a bullet, or similar, the other guns are blanks? Possibly both to prevent the shooter from knowing they killed someone, and... they other people don't know who killed them, thus not knowing who to "blame" for it.

I dunno, it's all pretty fucking stupid.




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_capital_punishment_by_countryThe stupidest ignorance to think that these people deserve it, but they can't bring themselves to consciously do it. I hope they do feel bad, at least they're not the ones getting killed. Also I find it a bit humorous that Cuba is more lenient with killing people than the US.

[#FF0000]

Got some backwards savages over there in the US

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

I'd prefer to be shot to some injection though.

[Cliff Paul]

I'd say the guillotine is probably the most 'humane' (not to mention cost effective) way to carry out a death sentence, but no comrade should support the right of the bourgeois state to kill.

[Cliff Paul]

I'd prefer to be shot to some injection though.

Like this?

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LVat3ZeuI9M/UTuZzJcLADI/AAAAAAAAC1M/6X5Ag9GI3jc/s1600/Execution+of+a+German+Communist+in+Munich,+1919.jp g

BTW, it's a PR photo the sparts put out during the german revolution.

[human strike]

If my memory serves me correctly, Joe Hill was murdered by firing squad in Utah back in 1915.

[Red Commissar]

If my memory serves me correctly, Joe Hill was murdered by firing squad in Utah back in 1915.

Yes, he that was the case for him. Before the Supreme Court briefly banned capital punishment in the US, firing squads, hanging, and electrical chairs were not uncommon- the former two were still preferred by the former frontier states like Utah.

In fact, even before this current wave of states attempting to make due with the interruption of the original execution cocktail, states like Utah offered the option of a fire squad to the individual. There were two men killed this way in 2006 and 2010 more recently- as the OP's article points out this was removed in 1996 then but those two had already made their choice before the law was passed. There's still another one apparently who had elected to do so before that law was passed.

The execution chamber in Utah makes room for this- you can see in this picture the chair where the prisoner sits (the same one pictured in the op) and the rifle ports opposite the chair above the lethal injection gurney.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Execution_Chamber_at_Utah_State_Prison.jpg


The whole mess involving how these states that are still trying to carryout their executions as they face pressure from the end of production of their original drug and issues with synthesizing new ones is an interesting one itself. I recommend this article written in The Atlantic (http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/02/can-europe-end-the-death-penalty-in-america/283790/)is a pretty detailed article on this matter.

As the article refers to we've seen a phenomenon of states using lethal injection scrambling to find compounding facilities to synthesize their own which has led to some botched executions. Likely we might see states flirting with proposals like Utah, they will probably watch to see if any legal challenges that arise go in favor of Utah before proceeding on their own.

I've been surprised that despite these measures states are taking to be able to continue executions as the old lethal injection stocks expire, we haven't seen more of a debate over capital punishment in the US. I suppose it will emerge once we see this kind of desperation in a more influential state like Texas- for context since the repeal of the temporary ban on executions in 1976, Texas has executed 522 prisoners and has 276 on death row (according to wikipedia). Texas is certainly a bigger state than Utah so there's that to consider, but the scale of capital punishment in states like Texas, California, Virginia, Oklahoma, Ohio, etc. will likely be what catches more attention if those states end up seeking other alternatives if their substitute lethal injections aren't feasible.

Still it's an uphill battle to end capital punishments in some of those states. I know from experience in Texas that abolishing capital punishment is simply not an issue you run on at a state level, and even with more local elections at times for positions like senator or representative for the state legislature. Notwithstanding a revolution, as far as places like Texas are concerned I can only see it ending through a supreme court decision, and even that is a longshot.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

ahhhh, land of the free.

[Ocean Seal]

What is the point of a firing squad anyway? A single gunshot to the back of the head seems a lot more effective and humane (as far as executions can be humane...)

Its for the executioners so they don't have to live with the guilt. Usually only one of the bullets actually is real so no one knows who is the state's murderer.

[Creative Destruction]

What is the point of a firing squad anyway? A single gunshot to the back of the head seems a lot more effective and humane (as far as executions can be humane...)

The way it's set up is that all the guns in the squad have blanks except one. And none of the officers in the squad know which one has the gun with the live bullet. They're all aimed at the heart, iirc, which would ensure as quick (and probably less gruesome) death than if they had just shot the prisoner in the head.

After the last Utah execution-by-firing-squad, there were a slew of think pieces by officers who had been on firing squads and showed the kind of psychological damage it took on them. It's easy for doctors who are assigned to a death-by-lethal-injection to rationalize it as a medical procedure, as well as it being coupled, possibly, with personal beliefs in the death penalty. It seems like it's completely different for people who have to shoot the prisoner.

[bricolage]

who does the shooting? prison officers?

[Comunero]

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night alive as you and me...