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Posted on 05/22/2003 1:32:11 PM PDT by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
Utah is getting ready to execute two convicted criminals by firing squad, an old and bloody means of execution that is likely to stir renewed debate about the cruelty of capital punishment in the United States.
The two men, a serial killer and a white supremacist who stabbed a fellow inmate in a vicious murder captured on videotape, are scheduled to die on consecutive nights at the end of next month.
Under Utah's laws, any prisoner sentenced to death has the right to choose between lethal injection - the preferred method of almost all US states that practise the death penalty - and a firing squad. The firing squad tradition is rooted in Mormon custom, which holds that blood must be shed for the crime of murder to be appropriately punished. Utah is the only US state to continue the practice, although it has done so just twice since capital punishment was reintroduced by the Supreme Court in 1976.
One of the men approaching their date with the executioner, Roberto Arguellos, a serial killer and rapist, has been begging the court system to put him to death for years. Not only does he want to die by firing squad, he says, but he wants to waive the right to have a hood over his head as it happens.
The other inmate, Troy Michael Kell, a white supremacist, has sworn, spat and wriggled his way through his various court hearings.
Both cases are problematic. A lawyer for Arguellos has filed a motion - against his will - for clemency on the grounds of mental deficiency. Kell, meanwhile, has filed an appeal for a stay of execution, which is likely to be granted.
The executions come just a month after the US State Department roundly condemned Cuba for executing a gang of ferry hijackers - they too were killed by firing squad.
The firing squads will be made up of police volunteers, who will remain anonymous.
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I thought they were talking about " sheets " Byrd.
I'm not so sure about that...
not when they pin the target over the heart...
Yeah, that'll work, but no doubt it'd be quicker and more certain with a head shot.
Yeah, at least 5 or 6 anyway.
There's no doubt he's gonna die when they all shoot for the heart.
It's doggone impossible for any of them to miss at that close range.
The only thing I'd question is just how instantaneous it was.
Just seems to me that a head-shot would be more humane.
(Not that I care if the scumbags suffer, but ya gotta be considerate of those who must officially witness the execution.)
Even if it only guaranteed unconsciousness a couple of seconds quicker.
he fought the justice system to ensure he would be executed quickly
The Execution of Gary Gilmore At eight minutes after 8:00 a.m on January 17, 1977, Gary Mark Gilmore was executed by a firing squad in Draper, Utah. The execution ended the life of a man who had killed at least two people and who had spent 18 of his 36 years behind bars for various offenses. Two aspects of the case kept it on the front pages for months. First, the death penalty had been reinstated in the United States in 1976 (not without controversy) after a 10-year hiatus and Gilmore was to become the first prisoner to be executed. Second, he fought the justice system to ensure he would be executed quickly.
I'd choose a firing squad too. It may be "messier," but it's far more humane than the creepy shades-of-Doctor-Mengele lethal injection.
The way hanging usually kills is by breaking the neck - which is why the knot on the noose is placed to the side. When hangings have been messy it's been due to the hangee [to coin a word] not being heavy enough and he dies of strangulation, a much messier, slower and more painful way of going.
There are some things even a worm won't eat. Or can't.
Maybe, but bullets have been known to glance off the skull, and you might lose part of the brain, but not necessarily the part that keeps you alive. Take out the heart and the killer will die, maybe not instantly, but loss of conciousness will be rapid.
10-4. I've thought the same thing for many years (though not anticipating committing a crime.) I believe all states should offer this option. I would find lethal injection very unpleasant, as opposed to humane.
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