Posted on 06/17/2010 6:28:06 PM PDT by Colofornian
Utah death-row inmate Ronnie Lee Gardner is set to be executed by a firing squad on Friday. Thirty-five states allow the death penalty, but death by firing squad remains an option only in Utah.
SNIP
Every detail of April 2, 1985, is burned into her memory. Gardner was in court on a murder charge when he tried to escape. An accomplice slipped him a gun, and he shot and killed an attorney and also severely wounded George "Nick" Kirk, who was a bailiff. Kirk didn't die, but VelDean Kirk says he wasn't the same active, cheerful man anymore. She says his final years were marked by excruciating pain and depression from a sedentary life.
His daughter, Tami Stewart, feels sorry for Gardner, but she can't forgive him. She imagines him in the death chamber. "He's going to feel that fear that he put into every one of those men. He's done. We've given him more than enough," Stewart says.
Gardner did get one choice: how he would die. In court, after being told he'd exhausted his appeals, the 49-year-old made his preference known.
"I would like the firing squad, please," he told the court...
...Utah's last firing-squad execution 14 years ago attracted more than 150 news crews from across the globe. They were interested in one thing: the method of execution.
SNIP
Utah historian Will Bagley says the reason this method of execution exists is rooted in Utah's history as a Mormon sanctuary. "I think we need to be honest about it. We have the last firing squads in the country as a legacy of Mormon theology," Bagley says.
Some early Mormon leaders believed in blood atonement for the most egregious sins. "To atone for those, Jesus' blood didn't count. You had to shed your own blood," Bagley says.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
I think Oklahoma has firing squads too!
Hand everyone a shotgun and use Saboted slugs.
That will end him quickly and humanely.
Execution by firing squads is allowable in Utah but also in Oklahoma and Idaho.
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Well, yes and no...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execution_by_firing_squad#Firing_squads_in_the_United_States
On April 1, 2009,[28] a bill to eliminate firing squad as a method of execution in Idaho was enacted, and took effect July 1, 2009. As of 2010, Oklahoma is the only other state in which execution by firing squad is legally available, though as a backup method only, in case both lethal injection — the state’s primary method of execution — and electrocution are regarded unconstitutional. [27]
This dirt bag knows nothing of or cares about the LDS faith. on.
Only if the other methods are deemed unconstitutional.
See post #43
This dirt bag knows nothing of or cares about the LDS faith.
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Not true, he grew up LDS and wanted to be re-baptized but SLC leadership would not grant it (which is normal result for felons).
I typed up the notes from his convo with his shrink.
I have always had mixed feelings about it. Even though the guy is scum and deserves it, the taking of a life has never sat well with me.
He’s using the Mormon faith just like he’s using the system.
come on, splitting hairs to push you’re agenda for godlessness.
The LSM is interested in this method of execution in West because it isn’t by one today except Utah. For some reason the LSM doesn’t seem to be interested in Muslim methods of execution like beheadings.
Well, at least you're consistent for once MB.
The least you could do is to balance your sniper fire scope so that at least something is trained on Gardner...and not only me...This two-bit murderer who conned a woman into becoming a fellow killer (she smuggled the weapon into the courthouse) is about to be a living-dead exemplar of justice.
Yes but YOU are here, now and posted the article.
Perhaps. But from what I know personally, he really believes it.
No, correcting a misconception.
ID has banned the firing squad now, and OK only has it as a back up.
And why on earth would you think I have an agenda of ‘godlessness’??
Sorry to disappoint, but I am a Christian not an atheist.
See post 51
There is no such a doctrine as blood atonement in the Church today nor has there been at any time. Any statements to the contrary are either idle speculation or pure fantasy. It is certainly not the current teaching of the Church and I have never in over 60 years of regular church attendance heard a single sermon on the subject or even a discussion in any church class.
I’ll call the dogs back into the yard. Have a nice night.
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