♫anna♫
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Post by ♫anna♫ on Jun 18, 2010 4:41:26 GMT
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_and_canada/10347166.stm QUOTE: Utah prepares for firing squad execution 02:03 GMT, Friday, 18 June 2010 03:03 UK Ronnie Lee Gardner has been on death row for 25 years The US state of Utah is preparing to put convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner to death by firing squad, the first such execution in 14 years. The US Supreme Court rejected a final appeal, meaning Gardner - who has spent 25 years on death row - will die at 0005 local time (0605GMT) on Friday. Gardner, 49, chose the firing squad as his method of execution before it was banned by Utah in 2004. He will be only the third man put to death in that way in the US since 1976. He was convicted in 1985 of fatally shooting a lawyer during an attempt to escape from a court where he was facing another murder charge dating from 1984. A federal appeals court in Denver denied Gardner's request for a stay of execution on Thursday. Just hours before his scheduled execution, the US Supreme Court - the highest court in the nation - rejected Gardner's final appeal against that decision. Utah Governor Gary Herbert also rejected a request for a temporary stay on Thursday, saying Gardner's legal team had presented no material that had not already been considered by the courts. "Mr Gardner has had a full and fair opportunity to have his case considered by numerous tribunals," he said in a statement. On Tuesday, he ate his final meal of steak, lobster, apple pie, vanilla ice cream and 7-Up, before beginning a 48-hour fast. His lawyers said Gardner had undertaken his fast for "spiritual reasons", the Salt Lake City Tribune newspaper reported. The execution will be carried out by a five-man firing squad. Four of their rifles will be loaded with live bullets but a fifth will carry a blank, so that none of the men knows with certainty that he shot a lethal round. Gardner will be hooded and strapped to a black metal chair, with a target pinned to his chest. He will be asked for his last words before the firing squad's triggers are pulled. Critics say the method is a relic from the state's Wild West past and should be abolished. Death row convicts in Utah were for decades allowed to choose their method of execution. State legislators removed that choice in 2004 and made lethal injection the standard method - but inmates sentenced before then can still opt for firing squad.
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Post by trubble on Jun 18, 2010 8:01:39 GMT
The Firing Squad method comes across as entirely ritualistic; coupled with his fast, it looks as if this man is choosing a ritual death. But then maybe that's what the death sentence is in essence - a ritual.
I'm interested to see that the debate and conflict about the death penalty rumbles on even right inside the core of the event. The convicted agrees with it, his daughter doesn't. One victim's family agrees with it, the other victim's family does not. from The Guardian www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/18/firing-squad-executes-death-row-inmate : His daughter Brandie told the Guardian that Gardner explained to her why he opted for the firing squad. "He told me: 'I lived by the gun, I murdered with a gun, so I will die by the gun'."
Brandie, 33, said she was strongly opposed to the death penalty, even though Gardner approved of it. "I oppose it not because of my dad but because there are 10 commandments and one says thou shalt not kill."
The family of one of the victims – Nick Kirk, who was shot in the stomach as Gardner tried to escape from a courthouse and died 10 years later – were also outside the prison, demonstrating their support for his execution. "You don't want to wish somebody dead," said Kirk's daughter Barb Webb. "But our family wants this finished – we need to heal."
Kirk's wife, BelDean, and granddaughter Jamie were among 25 people who watched the execution from two witness rooms protected from the risk of ricochet by the bullet-proof glass.
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Gardner never disputed his guilt or sought to minimise the terrible acts he had committed. In 1980 he was convicted of robbery and sent to Utah state prison, where his life would end 30 years later.
In 1984 he escaped, and on 9 October, high on cocaine, he shot and killed a barman, Melvyn Otterstrom, at Salt Lake City's Cheers Tavern.
On trial for that murder, he made another escape attempt on 2 April 1985, arranging for a gun to be slipped to him by a female accomplice as he was being brought to Salt Lake City's central courthouse. In the melee, he shot a lawyer called Michael Burdell in the right eye. Burdell died in hospital 45 minutes later.
Burdell's family has consistently opposed the execution of Gardner. His niece, Donna Taylor, speaking to the Guardian outside the prison, said her uncle had always been against the death penalty. "He just didn't like the idea of killing anybody. He wouldn't have wanted this."
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♫anna♫
Global Moderator
Aug 18 2017 - Always In Our Hearts
The Federal Reserve Act is the Betrayal of the American Revolution!
e x a l t | s m i t e
karma:
Posts: 11,769
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Post by ♫anna♫ on Jun 19, 2010 6:04:01 GMT
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Post by sadie1263 on Jun 20, 2010 1:50:06 GMT
Can't believe that was even an option.
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Post by pumpkinpie on Jun 21, 2010 3:07:15 GMT
Can't believe that was even an option. Neither can I, but what can I say- it's a bloodthirsty society.
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Post by Big Lin on Jun 21, 2010 22:37:04 GMT
I would rather have seen him hung; I don't find the firing squad an appropriate method of execution.
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Post by lonewolf on Jun 21, 2010 23:11:23 GMT
I would rather have seen him hung; I don't find the firing squad an appropriate method of execution. I see…… so what’s appropriate about breaking a man’s neck?
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Post by Big Lin on Jun 22, 2010 20:56:14 GMT
It's more humane for a start. Tests have shown that hanging is consistently the most humane form of execution.
Anyway, I think that firing squads should be reserved for things like wartime rather than for just some ordinary psycho murderer.
Besides, I'm a traditionalist in lots of ways!
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Post by DAS (formerly BushAdmirer) on Jun 22, 2010 21:59:56 GMT
I've always liked the Guillotine. If you're going to execute a murderer why not do it in a way that sends a message to potential murderers?
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♫anna♫
Global Moderator
Aug 18 2017 - Always In Our Hearts
The Federal Reserve Act is the Betrayal of the American Revolution!
e x a l t | s m i t e
karma:
Posts: 11,769
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Post by ♫anna♫ on Jun 22, 2010 22:14:05 GMT
I personally prefer the way capital murderers would disappear without a trace in Soviet Russia and never be seen or heard from again! Their names and personal documents were deleted out of existence!
Unfortunately the Soviets got it wrong with the MVSs by trying to silence them and make the crime "non-existent"!
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Post by lonewolf on Jun 23, 2010 1:15:49 GMT
It's more humane for a start. That’s an opinion; not a fact. Tests have shown that hanging is consistently the most humane form of execution. Which tests were those and where were they conducted and by whom? Anyway, I think that firing squads should be reserved for things like wartime rather than for just some ordinary psycho murderer. Besides, I'm a traditionalist in lots of ways! Nothing like a good hanging…right?
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♫anna♫
Global Moderator
Aug 18 2017 - Always In Our Hearts
The Federal Reserve Act is the Betrayal of the American Revolution!
e x a l t | s m i t e
karma:
Posts: 11,769
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Post by ♫anna♫ on Jun 23, 2010 2:12:46 GMT
Apparently all 3 firing squad executions in the US after the death penalty was reinstated were chosen by the dr inmate over an alternate form of execution. All 3 firing squad executions were in Utah too.www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/us/24death.html QUOTE: It was in Utah in 1977 that Gary Gilmore was executed by firing squad, which he chose over hanging. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execution_by_firing_squad QUOTE: John Albert Taylor was executed in 1996. Taylor reportedly chose this method of execution, in the words of the New York Times, "to make a statement that Utah was sanctioning murder." However, an article for the British newspaper The Times, written fourteen years after his execution, quotes Taylor justifying his choice because he did not want to "flop around like a dying fish" during lethal injection.
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Post by sadie1263 on Jun 23, 2010 3:35:55 GMT
Do they still do the firing squad where only one person has the real bullets and the rest are blanks? I've heard that the people on the squad never know who had the live rounds.......don't know if that is how it really works or not.
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Post by mikemarshall on Jun 24, 2010 21:54:34 GMT
The whole notion of execution is a relic of barbarism and the sooner it is something about which we read in history books - such as other barbaric practices - the better it will be for the world.
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♫anna♫
Global Moderator
Aug 18 2017 - Always In Our Hearts
The Federal Reserve Act is the Betrayal of the American Revolution!
e x a l t | s m i t e
karma:
Posts: 11,769
|
Post by ♫anna♫ on Jun 25, 2010 5:55:47 GMT
I think a firing squad execution gives the dr inmate a chance for "cult status" and so for that reason i don't favor it! g@ry gilmore's phrase "Let's do it!" wouldn't have ended up on T-shirts with his picture, if an alternate form of execution was chosen! My opinion!
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♫anna♫
Global Moderator
Aug 18 2017 - Always In Our Hearts
The Federal Reserve Act is the Betrayal of the American Revolution!
e x a l t | s m i t e
karma:
Posts: 11,769
|
Post by ♫anna♫ on Jun 28, 2010 7:31:48 GMT
I do feel that an execution with a single shot in the back of the head where the spine and skull connect is a humane, instantaneous and simplistic execution. Botched executions are virtually impossible with this method.
I apologize to anyone who may feel offended by the execution scene in this youtube link! Please don't click it if you suspect you'll be disturbed in any form. The film "Citizen X" is about arguably the most heinous serial killer in history, who murdered over 50 people in the most horrifying manner. He was executed in the typical Soviet fashion. No fanfare, no last words, virtually no witnesses, no news reports. The 2 soldiers bring the serial killer to the execution site, without informing him what they intend to do. One of the soldiers politely, but cooly says:"Please, enter this room." The serial killer obeys and when he starts to turn around the soldier again politely, but cooly says: "Please, don't turn around."
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Post by iamjumbo on Jun 29, 2010 17:32:25 GMT
it's so simple. every five year old can understand it. the FACT is that, as long as the intent of the method of execution is not solely to cause pain, NO amount of incidental pain required to cause death is a violation of the eighth amendment.
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Post by Big Lin on Jul 5, 2010 14:46:10 GMT
It's impossible to see how ANY execution can be pain-free.
Obviously we DON'T want to go back to the bad old days of burning at the stake, breaking at the wheel, flaying alive and boiling in oil.
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Post by lonewolf on Jul 7, 2010 16:09:36 GMT
Obviously we DON'T want to go back to the bad old days of burning at the stake, breaking at the wheel, flaying alive and boiling in oil. Says the woman who approves of breaking necks on the gallows.
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Post by iamjumbo on Jul 7, 2010 16:23:45 GMT
Obviously we DON'T want to go back to the bad old days of burning at the stake, breaking at the wheel, flaying alive and boiling in oil. Says the woman who approves of breaking necks on the gallows. of course, the FACT is that there is NO similarity between breaking necks on the gallows and the execution methods which lin listed
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