Last night the State of Utah executed one Ronnie Lee Gardner via firing squad.  Five marksmen were lined up, only four of which had rifles with live ammo.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g8WC44_sbT1BD1oecRlugVDKDlkQD9GDS10G0

Apparently all four bullets hit the target (his chest area) and then lodged behind the chair itself.

Gardner had his choice of either lethal injection or the firing squad.  He took the Gary Gilmore route.

Does anybody know why they aim for the chest instead of a head shot?  Seems to me that you'd inflict alot less pain, and have a more certain and rapid execution, going for the head. ???  It would be considerably more messy though.

Horrible.  I don't know why he picked that over lethal injection.

I suppose they don't aim for the head in case the family wishes to see him again before he's buried. 

Horrible.  I don't know why he picked that over lethal injection.


I'm guessing because it is faster, I could see that.  :-\\

If I were ever in that position, I think I would choose the firing squad too.  I'd also request to be standing, wearing a blindfold and having a cigarette hanging out the corner of my mouth.  Unlit, of course, as smoking is bad for your health.  If possible I'd request a little drum roll before they did the deed. 

I'd go out with style and panache.  8)

I'm guessing because it is faster, I could see that.  :-\\

If I were ever in that position, I think I would choose the firing squad too.  I'd also request to be standing, wearing a blindfold and having a cigarette hanging out the corner of my mouth.  Unlit, of course, as smoking is bad for your health.  If possible I'd request a little drum roll before they did the deed. 

I'd go out with style and panache.   8)


You getting shot..I get.  But leave poor style and panache alone!  ;)

You getting shot..I get.  But leave poor style and panache alone!  ;)


Karma + 1  ^^^

Horrible.  I don't know why he picked that over lethal injection.


There's some ambiguity over how painless lethal injection is.  The sequence of drugs is administered the way it is because many prisoners (funny, with a War on Drugs, you'd think prisons would be the most drug-free places on earth) are opiate addicts, and are effectively immune to some of the more conventional ways of knocking people out, like, for instance, a heroin overdose.

If a prisoner subject to lethal injection is actually conscious (but merely paralyzed, and not actually numbed out, and how would one tell, if every muscle from the eyelids to the diaphragm were paralyzed?) during the rest of the procedure, it'd be very painful indeed.  And if your death happens to actually be this unpleasant, it's not like you're in a position to tell anyone about it.

Now, as to why they don't go for a headshot, LyricBoy's got it.  Our legislators can't stand the sight of blood, but the voters kinda like inflicting some pain, as long as there's a fig leaf of plausible deniability about it. 

If you really wanted to kill someone in a humane fashion, you wouldn't bother with any of this stuff.  Here's what you'd do:

Y'know that panicky feeling you get when you hold your breath?  That's not your body running out of oxygen, it's your body reacting to the buildup of carbon dioxide in your bloodstream.  (It's why the gas chamber was largely abandoned - cyanide kills by screwing up cellular respiration, resulting in comparably unpleasant symptoms before death.)

But if you filled a gas chamber with a 100% nitrogen atmosphere, and threw the prisoner inside, here's what would happen:  He'd beathe in the nitrogen, and exhale the CO2.  No CO2 ever builds up in his bloodstream - so he doesn't get any of that panicky feeling.  A few breaths later, he experiences the first symptoms of hypoxia:  He feels dizzy for a second, says "WTF?", and falls down unconscious.  He dies a few minutes later.  Happens all the time in industrial accidents, which is why there are so many Big Friendly Warnings on dewar flasks full of liquid nitrogen, and so on.  One minute you're fine, the next minute your buddy is holding his breath as he drags you outa the lab and hopes he can find some good air.  As an industrial accident, it's scary as hell, but as an execution method, it can't be beat - just vent the room, admit a doctor to confirm death, and that's that. 

No pain, no blood.  And it'll never happen. 

Me?  I'd replace the nitrogen with helium, and send the guy out sounding like Alvin the Chipmunk!  (I'd write the law such that the condemned could get his choice of gases.  Sulfur hexafluoride on a bass singer, for example, could be the deepest baritone ever sung.  But the default gas would be helium, just for the lulz.)

Give me the Firing Squad!  It's nifty, it's romantic, it's political - pro-con, it bears a great cultural heritage!

The lethal injection business is a whole bunch of faux-humane hooey.  It's more likely to screw up and result in prolonged premortem suffering.  I have one contingency:  Five marksmen.  No blanks.

Okay, that's two contingencies.  I'll get the governor to wire me more bribe money!
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It does aid the prosecution if the defendant does have three names; however, not so in the case of Gary Gilmore who -- visa-vis or something clever -- had only two names.  Half the readership of Rolling Stone thought Gary Gilmore was the other guy in Pink Floyd!  No less, Gilmore did get his notoriety, just not as quick as if he was "Gary Wayne Gilmore" or "Gary Lee Gilmore"!
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/10/ticking.gif

There's some ambiguity over how painless lethal injection is.  The sequence of drugs is administered the way it is because many prisoners (funny, with a War on Drugs, you'd think prisons would be the most drug-free places on earth) are opiate addicts, and are effectively immune to some of the more conventional ways of knocking people out, like, for instance, a heroin overdose.

If a prisoner subject to lethal injection is actually conscious (but merely paralyzed, and not actually numbed out, and how would one tell, if every muscle from the eyelids to the diaphragm were paralyzed?) during the rest of the procedure, it'd be very painful indeed.  And if your death happens to actually be this unpleasant, it's not like you're in a position to tell anyone about it.

Now, as to why they don't go for a headshot, LyricBoy's got it.  Our legislators can't stand the sight of blood, but the voters kinda like inflicting some pain, as long as there's a fig leaf of plausible deniability about it. 

If you really wanted to kill someone in a humane fashion, you wouldn't bother with any of this stuff.  Here's what you'd do:

Y'know that panicky feeling you get when you hold your breath?  That's not your body running out of oxygen, it's your body reacting to the buildup of carbon dioxide in your bloodstream.  (It's why the gas chamber was largely abandoned - cyanide kills by screwing up cellular respiration, resulting in comparably unpleasant symptoms before death.)

But if you filled a gas chamber with a 100% nitrogen atmosphere, and threw the prisoner inside, here's what would happen:  He'd beathe in the nitrogen, and exhale the CO2.  No CO2 ever builds up in his bloodstream - so he doesn't get any of that panicky feeling.  A few breaths later, he experiences the first symptoms of hypoxia:  He feels dizzy for a second, says "WTF?", and falls down unconscious.  He dies a few minutes later.  Happens all the time in industrial accidents, which is why there are so many Big Friendly Warnings on dewar flasks full of liquid nitrogen, and so on.  One minute you're fine, the next minute your buddy is holding his breath as he drags you outa the lab and hopes he can find some good air.  As an industrial accident, it's scary as hell, but as an execution method, it can't be beat - just vent the room, admit a doctor to confirm death, and that's that. 

No pain, no blood.  And it'll never happen. 

Me?  I'd replace the nitrogen with helium, and send the guy out sounding like Alvin the Chipmunk!  (I'd write the law such that the condemned could get his choice of gases.  Sulfur hexafluoride on a bass singer, for example, could be the deepest baritone ever sung.  But the default gas would be helium, just for the lulz.)


When my sister was cleaning out an old dark room in college, she found a beaker of sulfuric acid.  She poured it down the sink.  Immediately, a white acidic cloud of evil-looking smoke appears, and her friend, who wasn't too quick-witted, ran over and took a biiiig whiiiif of that sh*t!  The young woman had to be hospitalized over night!  It's like those kids who are always going "spelunking" ("urban exploring") are always breaking into old hospitals and industrial buildings....you don't even have an inhaler, a pair of gloves, extra flashlight batteries, or a pair of thigh high boots (that's for protection from water and hazardous chemicals therein, don't get no funny ideas).  It's totally stupid.  You don't know WHAT you're gonna find in an abandoned chemlab!
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/13/icon_farao.gif

(I'd write the law such that the condemned could get his choice of gases.  Sulfur hexafluoride on a bass singer, for example, could be the deepest baritone ever sung. )


Good choice.  You could go out singing Barry White's "Don't Make Me Wait Too Long"  ;D

Good choice.  You could go out singing Barry White's "Don't Make Me Wait Too Long"   ;D


I always remember Barry White for
"It's ecstasy when you lay down next to me..."
8)

When my sister was cleaning out an old dark room in college, she found a beaker of sulfuric acid.  She poured it down the sink.  Immediately, a white acidic cloud of evil-looking smoke appears, and her friend, who wasn't too quick-witted, ran over and took a biiiig whiiiif of that sh*t!   http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/13/icon_farao.gif


I used to work in a steel mill, and at our pickling line we were amongst the last in the industry to still use sulphuric acid to do the job.

When any of us would have a sinus clog, we'd walk over by the line and get close enough to the tanks to get a nice whiff of the stuff.  Wa-la, no more congestion.  Much more effective than Claritin-D and pretty much instantaneous.  8)

Unfortunately we eventually modernized to the more popular hydrochloric acid process and it just wa snot the same.  ;D

I used to work in a steel mill, and at our pickling line we were amongst the last in the industry to still use sulphuric acid to do the job.

When any of us would have a sinus clog, we'd walk over by the line and get close enough to the tanks to get a nice whiff of the stuff.  Wa-la, no more congestion.  Much more effective than Claritin-D and pretty much instantaneous.  8)

Unfortunately we eventually modernized to the more popular hydrochloric acid process and it just wa snot the same.   ;D


Holy sh*t, LB, you were huffing sulfuric acid!?  Those little droplets of acid are real good for your lungs.  I lived near a pickle factory one time.  Here's the way South Deerfield worked.  You either got the stench of the pickle plant or the fumes from the candle factory.  It depended which way the wind was blowing.  The pickle plant was not really a big deal, but there were some funky odors wafting from the place, especially on a hot summer day.  

You go way back to the seventies with DOW chemical.  They'd pay some college kid $20 an hour, which was professional wages back then, to get in a space suit and clean the pipes.  They had stuff down in Texas that if you got 1 cc on your skin, you'd die of testicular cancer in two weeks!  My buddy used to talk about it.  He never did it, but it was tempting.  You could make big bucks as a clean up kid for Dow!  Some of those guys came back like zombies, man, they were just never the same.  Least, that's what I heard.  They still have barrels of stuff in Texas City so foul it could depopulate the gulf coast it's so nasty.  All they'd have to do is spill it!
"Was your brother hit with Agent Orange?"
"No, he worked for Dow!"
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When they execute a man with firing squad there is always one rifle loaded with a blank.  The guys don't know who gets the blank. It is a way of letting them think they weren't the one to take a life that day, it is called a "conscience round".  Thing is, a trained pro can tell the difference.  Weird custom.

Holy sh*t, LB, you were huffing sulfuric acid!?  Those little droplets of acid are real good for your lungs.  I lived near a pickle factory one time.  Here's the way South Deerfield worked.  You either got the stench of the pickle plant or the fumes from the candle factory.  It depended which way the wind was blowing.  The pickle plant was not really a big deal, but there were some funky odors wafting from the place, especially on a hot summer day.  

You go way back to the seventies with DOW chemical.  They'd pay some college kid $20 an hour, which was professional wages back then, to get in a space suit and clean the pipes.  They had stuff down in Texas that if you got 1 cc on your skin, you'd die of testicular cancer in two weeks!  My buddy used to talk about it.  He never did it, but it was tempting.  You could make big bucks as a clean up kid for Dow!  Some of those guys came back like zombies, man, they were just never the same.  Least, that's what I heard.  They still have barrels of stuff in Texas City so foul it could depopulate the gulf coast it's so nasty.  All they'd have to do is spill it!
"Was your brother hit with Agent Orange?"
"No, he worked for Dow!"
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/08/pump.gif
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/10/vampanim.gif





One word - BOPAL

When they execute a man with firing squad there is always one rifle loaded with a blank.  The guys don't know who gets the blank. It is a way of letting them think they weren't the one to take a life that day, it is called a "conscience round".  Thing is, a trained pro can tell the difference.   Weird custom.


Mikal Gilmore, brother of executee Gary Gilmore, said that Gary's shirt had 5 bullet holes in it, and there were 5 marksmen. Guess they did not want anybody to feel left out.  :-\\

If I were a marksman on a firing squad, I wonder if they would mind if I took the head shot?  I imagine somebody would be PO'd big time.  ;D

If you don't have the cajones to execute a man, I don't want you on my firing squad anyway.
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If you don't have the cajones to execute a man, I don't want you on my firing squad anyway.
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/10/uzi.gif


Damn straight.

And to prove my willingness, I WILL take that head shot.  Place is gonna look like a front row seat at a Gallagher performance.  :o

Damn straight.

And to prove my willingness, I WILL take that head shot.  Place is gonna look like a front row seat at a Gallagher performance.   :o


Oh god, y'make me nervous!  I was just saying, as a staunch opponent of the death penalty, if you're gonna do the job, then do the job.  F**K, get the Mafia to give me a pair of cement boots.  Just get the job done!

If I really was guilty, I'd want to just check out as soon possible, especially if I was person of color in Texas.  Gov. Bush used your appeals as TP.  Just don't credit me the 15 years of appellate BS!
::)