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Death by firing squad...in The United States of America.
June 18, 2010 12:27 PM

Is this country still stuck in the 19th century? Sheesh...

A five-member firing squad at the Utah State Prison took aim and fired .30-caliber bullets at a target pinned on the chest of Ronnie Lee Gardner, a convicted murderer, just after midnight on Friday. He was pronounced dead at 12:20 a.m. Mountain Time, after almost 25 years on death row and several months as the center of international attention focused not so much on crime as on his punishment.

It's one thing to remain in the club of countries that have the death penalty on the books (58 total), it's quite another to kill a man by firing squad.

This horrific practice is slowly coming to an end, though, even in Utah:

Only Utah, of the 35 states that impose the death penalty, still has death by shooting as an option, and then only for some. In 2004, the state Legislature changed the penal code, mandating that all executions thereafter be by lethal injection. A person convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death before the legal change took effect, however, can still choose lethal injection or the firing squad.

Four other death row inmates, grandfathered in under the old law, like Mr. Gardner was, have indicated that they might choose the firing squad if and when their time comes.

The last firing squad execution in Utah was in 1996, when John Albert Taylor, convicted of raping and strangling an 11-year-old girl, was put to death. Mr. Gardner chose the firing squad as his means of execution, over lethal injection, in a hearing in April.

The only other state with a firing squad option in its penal code is Oklahoma, which would allow the shooting of condemned prisoners only if lethal injection and electrocution were found unconstitutional.

But to announce the state murder of this man via twitter?

A solemn day. Barring a stay by Sup Ct, & with my final nod, Utah will use most extreme power & execute a killer. Mourn his victims. Justice.

The death penalty is indeed controversial in this country (and across the globe, actually) and this horrific practice was sure to meet the technological advances of the 21st century, but isn't it a bit distasteful to announce it on Twitter? What's next, live streaming of an execution?


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