home

Tag: firing squad

Utah Reinstates Death by Firing Squad

Utah Governor Gary Herbert has signed a bill into law allowing executions to proceed by firing squad when lethal injection drugs aren't available. From the Governor's website:

HB11, Death Penalty Procedure Amendments

This bill establishes the firing squad as a secondary method for executions, in the event the drugs necessary for lethal injection cannot be obtained. Lethal injection remains the primary method for carrying out executions in Utah.

I'd call Utah the new Indonesia except it isn't killing non-violent drug offenders. Still, it's sickening to think that any state in this country would legalize such barbaric means of state-sanctioned murder.

(54 comments) Permalink :: Comments

Utah AG Announces Execution Go-Ahead on Twitter

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff announced his giving the go-ahead for Ronnie Lee Gardner's execution last night in real-time on Twitter.

What progress (not), we've moved from the Executioner's Song to the Executioner's Tweet. "Firing Squad" is now trending on Twitter. At least he didn't post a twit-pic.

What a big black eye for Utah and the U.S. As I wrote last night, even Vietnam outlawed death by firing squad this week.

(50 comments) Permalink :: Comments

Ronnie Lee Gardner Exeucted by UT Firing Squad

Bump and Update: Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by firing squad just after midnight. He was dead at 12:20.

Bump and Update: The Supreme Court denied a stay Thursday Night. Justices Stephen Breyer and John Paul Stevens, would have granted the request for a stay. At 9:30 pm:

all communication from clergy, attorneys and others was cut off. Gardner continued watching movies at that point. He was 90 feet from the death chamber.

Barbarism is alive and well in the United States.

Barring a last minute reprieve, Ronnie Lee Gardner will be executed by a firing squad in Utah just after midnight. He has eaten his last meal and intends to fast until then. Here's how it will go down:

[More...]

(44 comments, 788 words in story) There's More :: Permalink :: Comments

Utah Schedules Firing Squad Execution for June

Ronnie Lee Gardner, his appeals exhausted after 25 years on daath row, has chosen the firing squad for his June 18 execution.

How is it carried out? From a TalkLeft post in 2003 quoting a news article no longer online:

....A hood will be put over the condemned man's head and a target will be pinned over his heart. The executioners will fire simultaneously from gun portals in a separate room at the inmate, seated in a chair about 30 feet away. One of the five rifles will contain a blank so that no one will know who fired the fatal shots.

[More...]

(33 comments, 174 words in story) There's More :: Permalink :: Comments