From CNN.com: Utah prepares for 2 firing-squad executions in June Thursday, May 22, 2003 Posted: 11:29 PM EDT (0329 GMT) SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (AP) -- The only state that dispatches condemned inmates by firing squad is assembling gunmen for back-to-back executions next month. The nation's last execution by firing squad was in 1996. Exercising their right under Utah law, a serial killer, Roberto Arguelles, and Troy Michael Kell, a white supremacist who stabbed a fellow inmate to death, have chosen the firing squad over lethal injection and are set to die at 12:01 a.m. on June 27 and 28, respectively. However, Kell filed an appeal last week that will probably halt his execution. Of the 850 inmates put to death in the United States since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, two have died by firing squad, both in Utah: Gary Gilmore in 1977 became the first person executed in the United States after the court's ruling, and John Albert Taylor was put to death 19 years later. Since 1977, Utah has executed four other killers, all by injection. Anti-death penalty forces are protesting, arguing that the firing squad amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. And the prison is bracing for large crowds of protesters. Utah's use of firing squads predates statehood in 1896 and is a remnant of the early Mormon belief that bloodshed is a required punishment for taking a life, said Richard Dieter, director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which says it is neutral about the death penalty but critical of its application. "Certainly no other state has continued its use or allowed people to choose it. It's the one thing that stands out," Dieter said. "It's part of the history, so there's a reluctance to change." The notion that murder must be atoned for in blood has never been part of official church doctrine, and the Mormon church has not taken a formal position on execution methods, said Robert Millet, Brigham Young University religion professor. The Utah Corrections Department is recruiting law enforcement officers for two five-person firing squads, asking the police departments in the communities where the crimes were committed to nominate volunteers. The officers' identities will not be released, and participants will be barred from talking publicly about the experience. 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. In 1992, Arguelles abducted and strangled Margo Bond, a janitor at a junior high school where he had been hunting for teenage victims. He also kidnapped, sexually assaulted and killed two girls, ages 13 and 15, and stabbed a 16-year-old girl more than 40 times. He was sentenced to death in 1997. Arguelles has repeatedly said he wants to die. Kell was convicted in 1996 of killing a black man, Lonnie Blackmon, at the Utah State Prison. Kell, serving time for a previous murder, stabbed Blackmon 67 times with a homemade knife in 1994. A prison videotape shows Kell shouting, "White power!" during the attack. Utah has 11 men on death row. Besides Arguelles and Kell, two other inmates have chosen to die by firing squad. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Moderators: It is not my intent to post this in order to spark a debate on capital punishment. Rather, I posted it so that all of us Rocket fans would have another reason to make fun of Utah (and their archaic ways). Please move this thread and accept my apologies if this discussioin happens to take a wrong turn somewhere.
Guillotines are too HUMANE Someone told me it was the most HUMANE execution style I dunno but back to this case. . .it says they chose the Firing Squad I guess they wanna go out like soldiers Rocket River
They should show the criminals a tape of John Stockton shaving his legs while wearing the nuthuggers...That will scare anybody straight...
I don't have a problem with firing squads in these two cases at all. They're receiving a much better fate than their victims, that's for sure.
Yes, it's not enough that they are being KILLED -- they have to feel the pain!! Guillotines are somewhat effective. They don't always go right through on one slice though. The other thing is that for about 10 seconds after a person's head is cut off, he can still see and have some cognition (or so I've read). Therefore it was popular to cut off someone's head, then show him his body before being entirely dead. Personally, I think the death penalty is inhumane anyways, but that's a topic for D&D.
The heads tell them. If I was given a choice on the method of my execution, I'd choose firing squad over any other common method. Besides having that Revolutionary Mexico feel, it seems like the most wholesome way to be executed.
If I had to choose how I would be put to death, here is how I would rank the most popular methods: 1. Guillotine (*chop*... instant death. no pain at all.. awesome) 2. Electric Chair (clean and quick) 3. Firing Squad (not bad, just don't miss) 4. Lethal Injection (supposed to be really painful, and needles creep me out) 5. Hanging (the thought of being hanged terrifies me... a horrible way to die) 6. Crucifiction (this would suck)
My history teacher told us about this one time. He said that people debated how long oxygen kept the brain "alive". He said that most scientists said actually ABOUT 10 MINUTES!!! He said that they would cut off the head and hold it up to the crowd that was watching. Then they would turn it back and let it look at the body. Also he told us how they would have to tie down the body so it wouldn't wriggle off the stage(the nerves that is). He showed us some pics. of an execution done in the 1940's with a guillotine....talk about a lot of blood.
I'd rather be lethally injected. It's the most humane, and isn't supposed to hurt at all. I dunno about the electric chair.... Guillotine-Freaks me out. No way I would pick it. Hanging-No way I would wanna be hanged. What happens if your neck doesn't snap? Hanging by piano wire is probably one of the worst punishments ever. Crucifiction-Has to be the worst way to die ever invented.
I'd like to be beheaded, by a guillotine, just to see if you actually can realize your head has been cut off, and see your headless body. Then my head would be bronzed, and shot out of a cannon, cause I always wanted to be shot out of a cannon.
