Why not? It's fascinating the philosophical hoops we jump through to justify what is a disgusting, barbaric act however you actually do it. Anyone who supports the death penalty should be required by law to watch it carried out.
South Carolina moves closer to allowing death by firing squad
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Re: South Carolina moves closer to allowing death by firing squad
#22How American is this country going to get?
Re: South Carolina moves closer to allowing death by firing squad
#23Death by firing squad is relatively humane (especially in comparison to electrocution), so if you really need to have capital punishment and your options are electrocution and firing squad, the choice is pretty clear. I think the reason executions moved away from firing squad was that it was mentally taxing of the people in the firing squad, not because the alternatives were more humane.
The good old binary. Let's just assume we _have_ to kill someone. We just have too. Now let's assume there are two ways to kill people. Nice. Gotta shoot em is the right answer.
Re: South Carolina moves closer to allowing death by firing squad
#24Looking forward to SC tar-and-feathering people for parking infractions next.
Re: South Carolina moves closer to allowing death by firing squad
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
It really doesn't matter to the person being executed. I think changing it is more about the sensibilities of the observers.
I think it does matter to the person being executed. There are numerous stories of lethal injections going wrong, of those being executed writhing around in extreme pain. If I were on death row I think I’d very strongly prefer a firing squad. If I were the person performing the execution… perhaps not. But I think you’re right that these changes aren’t being brought about for the benefit for the executed. It’s embarra…
Plus there's a certain panache to a firing squad. By that I mean it's more dignified.
There's something really creepy about injections and electrocutions, it's like they're a perversion of medicine.
Re: South Carolina moves closer to allowing death by firing squad
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why stop there? We could just load them up on an assembly line and have one of those automotive robotic arms use an air gun on them like they do for cattle. Better yet just rip their heads clean off with an automated guillotine. Then us regular folk could check it out on the latest “how it’s made” episode and remark to our selves on how satisfying the sheer efficiency of it is. Do that long enough and we could even h…
If it's ripping, is it really a guillotine?
Well, no. I seem to remember the history of the guillotine would preclude ripping as it was supposed to be cleaner than other chopping methods.
Re: South Carolina moves closer to allowing death by firing squad
#27The last execution by firing squad in the US was the execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010
Re: South Carolina moves closer to allowing death by firing squad
#28Death by firing squad is relatively humane (especially in comparison to electrocution), so if you really need to have capital punishment and your options are electrocution and firing squad, the choice is pretty clear. I think the reason executions moved away from firing squad was that it was mentally taxing of the people in the firing squad, not because the alternatives were more humane.
If it’s mentally taxing why not create some sort of automated firing squad? First version could just be a line of guns manually aimed and then set to fire simultaneously off some timer. More advanced versions could eventually feature face recognition for auto aiming and arbitrary placement of the gun turrets.
Can't we just use those execution bolt guns at that point? It seems silly to make a big distance and chance of missing. The products can be bought off the shelf from slaughter houses.
Re: South Carolina moves closer to allowing death by firing squad
#29Death by firing squad is relatively humane (especially in comparison to electrocution), so if you really need to have capital punishment and your options are electrocution and firing squad, the choice is pretty clear. I think the reason executions moved away from firing squad was that it was mentally taxing of the people in the firing squad, not because the alternatives were more humane.
If a firing squad is somehow moving anything in the right direction then god help you.
Re: South Carolina moves closer to allowing death by firing squad
#30This is a cruelly ironic development against the backdrop of the major DNA news in another capital case today—a potentially innocent man put to death. There is no do-over or undo, no fixing mistakes, when the death penalty is in play. The death penalty is barbaric and indefensible. The so-called criminal justice system is criminally unjust, and abolishing the death penalty is a good start towards reform (one among ma…
I honestly think I’d be pro-death penalty in a world where 100% of the sentences are accurate. But that’s not the world we live in so I’m 100% opposed.
Basically this. I have no objections to offing people who have offed others, but I cannot reconcile the death penalty with lack of trust in government. If they make simple mistakes then they cannot be trusted to implement the death penalty with 100% certainty.