Utah prisoner close to be executed by firing squad, as he requested

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100423/ap_on_re_us/us_utah_firing_squad

Since 1977 there were only 2 executions via this manner, all in Utah.

I don't know if in his place I wouldn't choose this too, due to concerns about botched lethal injections (not to mention such messy methods like hanging, electric chair or gas chamber).

[Bo]

not news

[Verily]

It strikes me as possible that this is a ploy for more time. Take the firing squad, then challenge it in court as cruel and unusual punishment (hasn't happened in fourteen years, and only twice since 1976, so it qualifies under the most stringent of "unusual" qualifications).

[Lief 🗽]

Makes sense. Plenty of heroes have been executed by firing squad, but very few by lethal injection.

[Landslide Lyndon]

It strikes me as possible that this is a ploy for more time. Take the firing squad, then challenge it in court as cruel and unusual punishment (hasn't happened in fourteen years, and only twice since 1976, so it qualifies under the most stringent of "unusual" qualifications).

Hard to see how being shot can be considered cruel and unusual but being electrocuted is OK.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

For the most part the electric chair has been phased out.

[Landslide Lyndon]

For the most part the electric chair has been phased out.

Nebraska still uses it.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

For the most part the electric chair has been phased out.

Nebraska still uses it.

Not anymore. It was rules to be unconstitutional some time ago.

[Holmes]

Barbaric.

[Landslide Lyndon]

For the most part the electric chair has been phased out.

Nebraska still uses it.

Not anymore. It was rules to be unconstitutional some time ago.

You're correct. But Virginia used it just a month ago.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Makes sense. Plenty of heroes have been executed by firing squad, but very few by lethal injection.

true. though the death penalty is I believe wrong in all cases, there is at least some small trace of something dignified and respectable in the firing squad, rather than completely denying the human spirit as in electrocution or lethal injection (called "humane" but really a perversion of medicine to kill an undesirable)

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

For the most part the electric chair has been phased out.

Nebraska still uses it.

Not anymore. It was rules to be unconstitutional some time ago.

You're correct. But Virginia used it just a month ago.

Yes. But times when electrocution was a sole method anywhere passed. Now it's an option.

Last electrocution where inmate couldn't choose any other option took place, if I remember correctly, in May 2002 in sweet state of Alabama.

States which used electric chair as a sole method since 1977 were: Alabama, Florida (up to 1999), Georgia (1998), Indiana (up to somewhere mid-1990s), Kentucky (up to late 1990s), South Carolina (up to mid-1990s as well), Louisiana (1990), Nebraska (up to recently, but no one was executed since 1997), Virginia (mid-1990s).

[Joe Republic]

Firing squad?  What a pussy.  Defenestration is how true heroes die.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Firing squad?  What a pussy.  Defenestration is how true heroes die.

I guess I know which side would you support during One Hundred Years War.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Slow news day?

[Free Palestine]

Firing squad?  What a pussy.  Defenestration is how true heroes die.

No.  True heroes die by being hung, drawn, and quartered.

[useful idiot]

My execution method preference:

1) Firing Squad
2) Hanging
3) Lethal Injection
4) Electric Chair
5) Gas Chamber

[The Mikado]

Firing squad would be the way to go.  Electric chair would be on the bottom of my list.

[King]

Now, now guys.  I think we all know the most humane and dignified form of execution.

[Badger]

Firing squad?  What a pussy.  Defenestration is how true heroes die.

New post-election sig material! Thanks Joe!

[John Dibble]

Firing squad?  What a pussy.  Defenestration is how true heroes die.

No.  True heroes die by being hung, drawn, and quartered.

Bull. All real men would choose death by snoo snoo.

[Verily]

Firing squad?  What a pussy.  Defenestration is how true heroes die.

I guess I know which side would you support during One Hundred Years War.

That was during (triggering) the Thirty Years' War, not the Hundred Years' War.

[Verily]

It strikes me as possible that this is a ploy for more time. Take the firing squad, then challenge it in court as cruel and unusual punishment (hasn't happened in fourteen years, and only twice since 1976, so it qualifies under the most stringent of "unusual" qualifications).

Hard to see how being shot can be considered cruel and unusual but being electrocuted is OK.

It's the "unusual" part that usually gets caught up in the courts. Sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy, but courts often rule that punishments are not "cruel and unusual" if they are not "unusual"--that is, if they happen with some frequency, which most executions do. Executions by firing squad are very rare, however, so they fulfill the "unusual" qualification and only need to meet the "cruel" qualification.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Now, now guys.  I think we all know the most humane and dignified form of execution.

Nah, that's funnier:

[??????????]

It strikes me as possible that this is a ploy for more time. Take the firing squad, then challenge it in court as cruel and unusual punishment (hasn't happened in fourteen years, and only twice since 1976, so it qualifies under the most stringent of "unusual" qualifications).

Hard to see how being shot can be considered cruel and unusual but being electrocuted is OK.

It's the "unusual" part that usually gets caught up in the courts. Sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy, but courts often rule that punishments are not "cruel and unusual" if they are not "unusual"--that is, if they happen with some frequency, which most executions do. Executions by firing squad are very rare, however, so they fulfill the "unusual" qualification and only need to meet the "cruel" qualification.

Firing squad and hanging are probably the two most humane methods available.