Utah Lawmakers Vote to Allow Firing Squad

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

Lawmakers have passed a bill that would make Utah the only state to allow firing squads for carrying out a death penalty if there is a shortage of execution drugs.

The passage of the bill by the state Senate on Tuesday comes as states struggle to obtain lethal injection drugs amid a nationwide shortage.

The bill's sponsor, Republican Rep. Paul Ray of Clearfield, touted the measure as being a more humane form of execution. Ray argued that a team of trained marksmen is faster and more humane than the drawn-out deaths that have occurred in botched lethal injections.

... Opponents, however, said firing squads are a cruel holdover from the state's wild West days and will earn the state international condemnation. "I think Utah took a giant step backward," said Ralph Dellapiana, director of Utahns for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. He called firing squads "a relic of a more barbaric past."

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/lawmakers-vote-state-firing-squad-29542718

[forest444]

1. In its pre-statehood days, bank robbers and cattle rustlers would get the firing squad in Utah.

Last edited Tue Mar 10, 2015, 11:06 PM - Edit history (1)

Which begs the question: will they give Robmey the same treatment now?

[Telcontar]

2. I thought they already did this

Am I misremembering?

[LeftyMom]

7. They only stopped offering it as an option a few years ago. nt

[ErikJ]

3. Beheading is quicker and less painful.

Sectarian govts are so compassionate.

[slumcamper]

4. Revolting that some DUers are making light of this. Get serious. n/t

[forest444]

6. We only laugh to keep from crying, slumcamper.

Last edited Wed Mar 11, 2015, 12:14 AM - Edit history (1)

Believe me, I hurts to know that in the United States of America, in 2015, we still have to read news like these (or worse).

And the worst part is that, as things stand now, there really isn't a thing we can do about any of it. There are heroes out there to be sure, and sometimes their fight makes it all the way to the top (the Supreme Court) - but for what?

Just to give that Mucinex scum Scaliar something else to gloat over while he burps out brain farts like "for the believing Christian, death is no big deal; for the nonbeliever, on the other hand, to deprive a man of his life is to end his existence" - while, of course, holding that the execution of the mentally retarded was ruled unconstitutional only because it "rested so obviously upon nothing but the personal views of its members."

That's the problem, as you know: Tony-the-Hutt may be a ridiculous imp; but at the end of the day he's the ugly truth any challenge to the death penalty faces these days.

[Trillo]

5. I'm reminded of the recent LAPD shooting of the veteran, took "less than 45 minutes" to die

after getting shot 21 times.

[LeftyMom]

8. It's because "blood atonement" is a mormon requirement for forgiveness of murder.

No literal blood on the ground =/= no forgiveness for murder.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_atonement

[LiberalFighter]

9. Will they be the first to line up to be on the receiving end?

[davidpdx]

10. It's nice to see that the Republicans are so open-minded....

about killing.

[Judi Lynn]

11. "Humane form of execution" is hard to imagine altogether.

[center]



Rep. Paul Ray[/center]
Rather than using his time as a politician to abolish this depravity, he spends his efforts to change the form to one which is more pleasurable for sadists to visualize. This is what he wants to do with his life, his "legacy."