If I were on death row, and given the choice, I would 100% opt for firing squad without hesitation. I can’t think of a single other form of execution I would prefer. Unless dragons were real.
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I read up on this all at one point and there’s a good bit of research showing that properly run firing squads and long drop hanging are a hell of a lot more humane than more modern methods. Including lethal injection (especially lately).
All based on how quickly brain function stops and physical responses.
Hanging tends to look better because it’s easier to conduct properly and because of the psychological toll on the firing squad members. Which is part of what makes doing it properly so hard.
We ended up with the methods we have today because the older ones made the public uncomfortable. Not because it was less cruel.
Which should be a pretty big hint that we shouldn’t be doing this.
But if execution exists, then firing squads or hanging would probably be less bad.
I think it’s still legal in Utah, but only by request of the condemned. When it rarely gets requested it tends to be because the person believes it will be less horrible than the alternatives. And usually doesn’t end up happening, because it’s next to impossible to get enough people willing to pull the trigger.
Which is should be a pretty big hint that we shouldn’t be doing this.
Yeah it’s basically a big ole over dose of anesthesia of various sorts.
Thing is when there have rarely (but less rarely than you’d hope) been people who survived a properly done one, they describe it as fucking horrible and painful. And there’s lot of that brain wave and physical data that looks pretty bad.
It’s pretty uncommon to for them to go properly. Especially these days where drug companies refuse to provided the preferred compounds, Doctors aren’t allowed to be involved and every execution is basically an experiment to see what works.
Lethal injection is fucked up. Even in comparison to the electric chair which is a literal horror show. Both appear to be slow, painful, writhing deaths.
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Once people accept killing others for “reasons” the method doesn’t matter, though, does it?
That’s the whole of my point and any discussion on methods or merits is abhorrent.
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I think if there is any psychological toll, then maybe that is a sign we shouldn’t be doing it at all.
As I have stated in the past, I have zero problem with people like Ted Bundy and Tim McVeigh getting the death penalty. But there are way too many people exonerated on death row for the state to be trusted with carrying out executions. If that means monsters like McVeigh and Bundy get to live a long life (albeit in prison) that is the trade off so that an innocent person isn’t wrong executed. Or a person convicted of a less serious crime isn’t railroaded through the system in the name of justice.
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I would be interested in knowing the analytically calculated odds regarding the comparative likelihood of any or all of these SC legislators dying by either of these proposed methods.
Science? Anyone?
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I hope that I have not missed your leaving because fucking cheers!
My state, Virginia, recently abolished the death penalty. Moving forward, not backward is worthy of a cocktail under the stars.
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It would certainly increase the use of pardon/clemency!
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This reminds me of how as Florida was about to pass new draconian voter suppression laws they realized this would also suppress the votes of conservative voting older people and military people and then they tried but failed to say it applies to everyone except these conservative voters.
My first thought seeing the OP headline was does it exclude white men in red hats? (Literally, not just in the typically wink wink way)
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Given the horror stories I’ve heard about lethal injection and electrocution, I think I would choose Soviet era “bullet to the back of the head” as the preferred choice. Not sure why they have to do some “firing squad” BS if they are determined to kill someone. Sadism I guess? If you are going to do firing squad, make sure each member only gets one bullet (or only one live round per squad) and say “if he lives, he lives; no second attempts”. That will have the practical effect of a near guaranteed bullet to the head.
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What’s to stop the executioners from deciding the pain level the victim gets?
“Gosh, what were the chances we’d all hit an elbow or knee!!??”
More fail.
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I think turning it into an elaborate ritual or ceremony-style event with men lined up straight and wearing fancy uniforms just makes it seem less like the murder-by-state that it is. Kinda like war, I guess.
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All that achieves is that the firing squad will leave you to bleed out. We really should move away from the idea of capital punishment.
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Well, the most “humane,” according the culture we seem to have, would be to overdose the condemned on pentobarbital, like we euthanize sick pets, or to stun him with a captive-bolt pistol, like we dispatch sheep and cattle
but is being “humane” really the highest value here?
A firing squad targets an enemy of the state who (supposedly) needs to be violently killed to protect the public. The person in front of the shooters is at least identified as a human being. He’s not being redefined as livestock first.
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Intentionally ignoring the methods of execution, that part is cheap.
The paper trail is what gets expensive quickly.
Consider:
- Trial
- Appeal (State)
- Appeal (Federal)
- Appeal (Direct/State)
- Appeal (Certiorari/Federal)
- State Habeas Corpus Proceedings
- Federal District Court (Constitutional claims)
- (State) Governor Clemency Application
For the above processes in a death penalty case, the state is on the hook for providing competent counsel to BOTH SIDES during all of the phases.
For the above (usually shortened) in a non death penalty case (life without parole), the defendant is on their own in funding their counsel for any appeals process, and that rarely happens saving the taxpayer a bunch of money.
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A bit the opposite. Compassion/cajoling for the executioner.
Few people are willing to shoot a helpless captive, fewer still on the regular. And ya don’t really want to engage with those who do.
Multiple shooters gives each individual the chance to plausibly believe they did not kill. It also means some of the shooters can deliberately miss or refuse to shoot and there’s still a good chance of a quick death.
A LOT of the traditions around executions are down to this. It was common to give at least one shooter a blank cartridge, and not tell anyone who. It gave people that comfortable fiction, and reduced the chance of people deliberately missing or not shooting.
Hoods were about dehumanizing the condemned to make it easier on executioners and thus executioners more reliable.
All of which should be a very good sign that we shouldn’t be doing this.
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the whole thing is pointless and counterproductive in so many different ways
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This is why we should not execute anyone. I mean on top of not doing it because it’s immoral.
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Lots of good reasons not to kill people, really.
One would hope that the right-wingers who are always so insistent that our government is too incompetent to be entrusted with things like healthcare and public safety might be wary about handing that same government the power to kill people, but no such luck.
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You’d think that, but no. They love the government to basically be blood thirsty and murderous to THOSE PEOPLE, but god forbid you give one thin dime for anything else…
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That is a pretty unorthodox interpretation of what the speaker could have been trying to get at with that statement.
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