Death row inmate's lawyers say they'd prefer firing squad over lethal injection

FoxNews.com ^ | December 15, 2016 | AP

[Bubba_Leroy]

A Virginia inmate asked a federal court Wednesday to block the state's plans to execute him next month with lethal injection drugs from a secret compounding pharmacy, suggesting even a firing squad would be more humane.

Attorneys for Ricky Gray said in a federal complaint that there is a serious risk that Virginia will "chemically torture" the man to death when it uses compounded drugs for his execution scheduled for Jan. 18. Although firing squads aren't permitted under Virginia law, his attorneys argue even that method would be a more humane alternative.

"It is both more humane, quicker, more effective, and would frankly be completely feasible in Virginia," Lisa Fried, an attorney for Gray, said of a firing squad. Gray was convicted of killing a well-known family of four, including two young girls, in Richmond on New Year's Day in 2006.

[Bubba_Leroy]

I have no problem with giving condemned murderers their choice from a list of approved execution methods: lethal injection, firing squad, hanging, the electric chair, or the gas chamber. It would cut down on these last minute appeals claiming that any particular method is cruel and unusual.

[hattend]

So would we. And don’t wait 25 years to do it.

[HotKat]

I like that. Choose your own method of execution! Guillitine is my personal favorite.

[fwdude]

I have no problem with giving condemned murderers their choice from a list of approved execution methods: lethal injection, firing squad, hanging, the electric chair, or the gas chamber.

They could make a game show out of it. "You've chosen death by electric chair. Do you want to keep it, or see what's behind door number 3?"

[SpaceBar]

It’s a ploy. The lawyer knows full well it will be tied up in court for years.

[ColdOne]

The family of four not available for comment.

[Bullish]

I prefer tying him to a fire ant hill.

[Organic Panic]

Cheap too. At most a 30-06 round is $2. $10 total and he’s gone. The state probably spends thousands on the “cocktail.”

[Buckeye McFrog]

Yup. If granted it would be followed by a suit claiming the FDA had not found the bullets to be “safe and effective”.

[SkyDancer]

Turn of the twentieth century a murderer had around four months before they were hanged. Now it’s decades.

[WayneS]

I own a very nice, very accurate, 1903 Springfield, and I live only an 1-1/2 hour drive from Jarrat.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

On the other hand, I doubt if Gray gave his victims a choice of how they’d have preferred to die.

[musicman]

[Gay State Conservative]

I’d be willing to help string him up!

[WayneS]

Heck, they’re probably only 50 cents a round at the state contract price.

[BenLurkin]

Don’t slaughterhouses kill cows quickly? Why not find out how they do it?

[USMCPOP]

Why don’t they just buy a bunch of decent Heroin off the streets? I just don’t understand why they seem to want to use designer drugs.

Or just juice them up with a little Heroin, then a bit of cyanide, strychnine or whatever.

[pgkdan]

I have no problem with having him face a firing squad. Let’s give him what he wants.

[Calvin Locke]

The Gary Gilmore gambit.

[Jonty30]

Carbon monoxide is cheap and painless. You just get sleepy.

Then you die.