Death by Firing Squad – A Noble Death?
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Utah has carried out the first execution by firing squad in The United States for 14 years.
Convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner, who had spent 25 years on death row, was executed soon after midnight local time, after a final appeal had been rejected.
Gardner, 49, chose the firing squad before Utah banned the method in 2004. Critics say it is barbaric, harking back to the Wild West. Gardner was only the third man put to death in this way in the US since 1976. All three were in Utah.
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.
El Tres de Mayo by Francisco Goya
The execution was carried out at a prison in Draper, a suburb of Salt Lake City, by a five-man firing squad of police officer volunteers.
Four of the .30 calibre Winchester rifles were loaded with live bullets but a fifth carried a blank, so that none of the men would have known with certainty that he had shot a lethal round.
Gardner was asked if he had any final words and said: “I do not. No.” He was hooded and strapped to a black metal chair, with a white target pinned to his chest. Gardner was then shot at a range of 25ft (7.6m).
It is estimated that 142 men have been judicially shot in the United States and English-speaking predecessor territories since 1608, excluding executions related to the American Civil War. The Civil War saw several hundred firing squad deaths, but reliable numbers are not available. Crimes punishable by firing squad in the Civil War included desertion, intentionally killing a superior officer or fellow soldier, and espionage.
Capital punishment was suspended in the United States between 1972 and 1976, as a result of several decisions of the United States Supreme Court (Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238). The process resumed with the execution of Gary Gilmore on January 17, 1977, at Utah State Prison in Draper.
In Utah, the firing squad consists of five volunteer law enforcement officers from the county in which the conviction of the offender took place. The five executioners were equipped with .30-30 caliber rifles and off-the-shelf Winchester 150 grain SilverTip ammunition. The condemned was restrained and hooded, and the shots were fired at a distance of 20 feet, aiming at the chest. According to his brother Mikal Gilmore’s memoir Shot in the Heart, Utah’s tradition dictated that a firing squad comprise four men with live rounds, and one with a blank round, so that each of the shooters could cast doubt to having fired a fatal shot.
However, upon inspecting the clothes worn by Gary Gilmore at his execution, Mikal noticed five holes in the shirt — indicating, he wrote, that “the state of Utah, apparently, had taken no chances on the morning that it put my brother to death.”
Death by firing squad, historically, was a soldiers death and considered a noble way to die.
Countries with Highest Number of executions, 2009
China – 1,000+
Iran – 388+
Iraq – 120+
Saudi Arabia – 69+
USA – 52
Yemen – 30+
Sudan – 9+
Vietnam – 9+
Syria – 8+
Japan – 7
+ known executions but not possible for figure to be exact – Amnesty International
Death sentences and executions, 2009 – Amnesty International
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I’d pull the trigger shortly before advising whoever “Hey! I’ve got the live round!”
An eye for an eye. Who cares how we kill the bastards? (Mind you…we have to be 100% certain it was them that commited the crime…posthumous pardons not being worth a great deal to the deceased…)
..As long as it is definitely them, kill them…firing squad, electric chair, lethal injection…what ever…
They shot him in the chest…I thought they shoot for the head because they die faster.
How removed would one have to be to be able to do that? Is that what we teach our soldiers? Our cops?
Maybe you couldn’t pull the trigger, but if you were in another room from the convicted, could you flip an electrical switch?
How about push a button that delivers a fatal dose of medicine? I can barely kill a cockroach, but if I were threatened (or if my kids were) with bodily harm I might be able to shoot my attacker. But to shoot a person who is tied and blindfolded- nope couldn’t do it.
You simply have to be a God loving person…they are the one who love to kill the most.
Not sure what’s up with that 5th blank thing. The shooter will know when they pull the trigger whether they fired a live round or a blank. A blank has no recoil.
What kind of person volunteers to shoot another human being to death?
The blank is not for the shooter to be confused, just the family and friends, so there is less retaliation on the shooters.
Imagine being one of the people who had to pull the trigger. I couldn’t have done it.
I agree, and cops VOLUNTEER to do it!
Why do we kill people to show other people it is wrong to kill people.
It is wrong to murder, but not wrong to kill. Otherwise how could anyone justify war?
If someone raped and killed my daughter and I found out who it was, no court could protect them from the killing they would deserve. I’d rather my tax dollars be “wasted” extinguishing the deviants (as in the example above) than keeping them alive indefinitely in prison.
In practice capital punishment is unevenly handed out, heavily weighted toward minorities, and imperfect. But there are just some offenses that are so, well, offensive! that to allow the perpetrator to continue to draw breath is itself a crime.
Does it prevent future murders? Maybe not in the general population, but I guarantee you that an executed murderer will pose no future harm to society.
You would have to smuggle a nylon knife into court, or one of those ceramic guns like John Malkovich used in that Clint Eastwood movie… But how to get the bullets past the metal detector and into the courtroom???
I am of the opinion the death penalty should be abolished. It won’t stop crime, it is costly for the localities in trials and what not. Life in prison with ZERO chance of parole is the way we should go IMO. How many people have been found innocent that have been dealt the death penalty? How is the DP meted out, unfairly targeting certain ethnicities? It is just revenge killing by the state, no better than the person accused of the crime, that handed down the death sentence.
For what it’s worth….
I don’t believe in the death Penalty.
End of story….
In this day and age, seems to me a bit antiquated.
Anyone want to do the numbers and figure out what nation has the highest number of executions per capita?
It’s Iran.
Had to be a God loving state…delusional and psychotic!