There was a huge kerfuffle about it here when it happened. We had a law on the books that allowed it and the dude insisted on it, ostensibly for religious reasons. I can’t remember if we took the law off the books or not, but I hope we did. While nobody else knows who fired the killing shots, the people who did it know. If they’re the type that wants to kill, then I don’t want to give them the pleasure. If they’re not, I don’t want to make those people live with a violent death on their conscience. It’s fucked up, just like executions in general.
EDIT: Execution by firing squad had been removed in 2004, but anyone sentenced before then had it as an option. Gardner was grandfathered in.
I was told years ago that there are multiple shooters and some of them have blanks so they don’t actually who who fired the shot, I’m not sure how true that is.
Lethal injection is almost always administered by an unqualified not a proper doctor, because essentially every doctor refuses to do it.
Why does every doctor refuse to do it?
Because it is horrifically inhumane.
Lethal injection is a cocktail of 3 drugs:
A sedative / anaesthetic.
A paralytic.
A drug that induces a heart attack.
…
Here’s some problems:
The guy that came up with the original cocktail did it on a hunch, a best guess, because he wasn’t an actual doctor. Just made it up, and we’ve been going with it for like 70 years, it’s cool, trust me bro, I read about this stuff in a magazine.
So… being a proper anaesthesiologist is a highly specialized skill, you have to know a lot about a person’s medical history and conditions to properly sedate them.
But almost no lethal injections are done by qualified anaesthesiologists.
That means you often get too small a dose, which means you are conscious, aware, and feel everything, but drowsy, like you accidentally took 3x the nyquil you should have, but cannot actually fall asleep.
Next comes the paralytic!
Which, oops, when you are conscious for that, well, that means you are now actually suffocating to death, as your diaphram is mostly paralyzed and you can’t breathe without immense willpower. If you’ve ever held your breath a long time for something like a deep dive in water, you’ll know that the lack of oxygen in your lungs begins to feel like they are on fire. Also, every muscle in your body is now having the worst charlie horse you’ve ever had, at the same time.
Now for the heart attack inducing drug!
This feels like a burning liquid coursing through your veins, and then entire body. Your paralyzed, oxygen starved lungs now begin to fill with liquid. Then your heart feels like it is going to explode, and then it stops.
Were you not (nearly) totally paralyzed and partially sedated, nor strapped into the death bed, you’d be screaming in agony, flailing around and violently contorting, probably vomiting through gritted, clenched teeth.
This whole process can and has lasted 20 minutes, an hour, two hours.
… Being shot in the heart or head literally is more humane and painless, so is a proper hanging that breaks your neck instead of strangling you.
I would think that if a person committed such a horrible crime that they got the death penalty it wouldn’t be so hard to participate in the execution. I personally have changed my view over the years. I would rather keep them in for life without parole. That’s a life more miserable than be executed
21st century and Utah is still killing people with firing squads.
There was a huge kerfuffle about it here when it happened. We had a law on the books that allowed it and the dude insisted on it, ostensibly for religious reasons. I can’t remember if we took the law off the books or not, but I hope we did. While nobody else knows who fired the killing shots, the people who did it know. If they’re the type that wants to kill, then I don’t want to give them the pleasure. If they’re not, I don’t want to make those people live with a violent death on their conscience. It’s fucked up, just like executions in general.
EDIT: Execution by firing squad had been removed in 2004, but anyone sentenced before then had it as an option. Gardner was grandfathered in.
I was told years ago that there are multiple shooters and some of them have blanks so they don’t actually who who fired the shot, I’m not sure how true that is.
In this case, there were 5 shooters. One of them had a cartridge loaded with a wax bullet, so 4 of them had live rounds.
Based on what I’ve read it seems like a firing squad is actually more humane than using drugs
Yep, came here to say that.
Lethal injection is almost always administered by an unqualified not a proper doctor, because essentially every doctor refuses to do it.
Why does every doctor refuse to do it?
Because it is horrifically inhumane.
Lethal injection is a cocktail of 3 drugs:
A sedative / anaesthetic.
A paralytic.
A drug that induces a heart attack.
…
Here’s some problems:
The guy that came up with the original cocktail did it on a hunch, a best guess, because he wasn’t an actual doctor. Just made it up, and we’ve been going with it for like 70 years, it’s cool, trust me bro, I read about this stuff in a magazine.
So… being a proper anaesthesiologist is a highly specialized skill, you have to know a lot about a person’s medical history and conditions to properly sedate them.
But almost no lethal injections are done by qualified anaesthesiologists.
That means you often get too small a dose, which means you are conscious, aware, and feel everything, but drowsy, like you accidentally took 3x the nyquil you should have, but cannot actually fall asleep.
Next comes the paralytic!
Which, oops, when you are conscious for that, well, that means you are now actually suffocating to death, as your diaphram is mostly paralyzed and you can’t breathe without immense willpower. If you’ve ever held your breath a long time for something like a deep dive in water, you’ll know that the lack of oxygen in your lungs begins to feel like they are on fire. Also, every muscle in your body is now having the worst charlie horse you’ve ever had, at the same time.
Now for the heart attack inducing drug!
This feels like a burning liquid coursing through your veins, and then entire body. Your paralyzed, oxygen starved lungs now begin to fill with liquid. Then your heart feels like it is going to explode, and then it stops.
Were you not (nearly) totally paralyzed and partially sedated, nor strapped into the death bed, you’d be screaming in agony, flailing around and violently contorting, probably vomiting through gritted, clenched teeth.
This whole process can and has lasted 20 minutes, an hour, two hours.
… Being shot in the heart or head literally is more humane and painless, so is a proper hanging that breaks your neck instead of strangling you.
Only seconds of pain untill brain death.
True.
Although I wonder if it creates jailers who have to work extra hard to dehumanize people. So that’s probably not great.
I would think that if a person committed such a horrible crime that they got the death penalty it wouldn’t be so hard to participate in the execution. I personally have changed my view over the years. I would rather keep them in for life without parole. That’s a life more miserable than be executed
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