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Federal Judge: Forget Lethal Injections, Use Firing Squads
Newser ^ | July 22, 2014 | Rob Quinn

Posted on 07/22/2014 3:00:08 AM PDT by Enterprise

Killing people is a brutal and messy business and if Americans can't deal with that, they shouldn't be condemning people to death, a top federal judge says. In a strongly worded dissent in an Arizona lethal-injection case, Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals, calls the current system "inherently flawed" and says states that want to execute inmates should return to more "primitive—and foolproof—methods" of execution, NBC reports. "The guillotine is probably best but seems inconsistent with our national ethos. And the electric chair, hanging and the gas chamber are each subject to occasional mishaps," he writes. "The firing squad strikes me as the most promising. Eight or ten large-caliber rifle bullets fired at close range can inflict massive damage, causing instant death every time.

(Excerpt) Read more at newser.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: bullets; deathpenalty; executions; firingsquad; guns
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Ready on the right. Ready on the left. The firing squad is ready.
1 posted on 07/22/2014 3:00:08 AM PDT by Enterprise
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To: Enterprise

I have a Marlin 45-70 Government Guide Scout I’m itching to try out.


2 posted on 07/22/2014 3:01:12 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: Enterprise

This judge “gets it”.


3 posted on 07/22/2014 3:04:54 AM PDT by Hugh the Scot ( Total War)
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To: Hugh the Scot

...and policing up spent brass aids in job creation. Then there’s that punishment fitting the crime thingy.


4 posted on 07/22/2014 3:12:29 AM PDT by Huaynero
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To: Enterprise

THANK YOU!!!!!! I feel like this is the most common sense I’ve heard from a judge in 5 years.


5 posted on 07/22/2014 3:13:25 AM PDT by Politicalkiddo (You cannot protect a child from child abuse by aborting it. Abortion *is* child abuse.)
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To: Hugh the Scot

Good as anything else. A cup of Hemlock, a dagger in the chest—anything that will do the job. For some crimes—burial alive would be justice.


6 posted on 07/22/2014 3:13:41 AM PDT by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll Onward! Ride to the sound of the guns!)
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To: Gaffer
The anti death penalty groups and gullible Federal Judges brought about the use of drugs to carry out a death sentence. And that brought out more problems. I agree with the Judge in this article, just go back to firing squads.

Future headline: VOLUNTEERS WANTED FOR FIRING SQUAD. BRING YOUR OWN PISTOL OR RIFLE AND AMMUNITION. HIGH CAPACITY MAGAZINES ARE ACCEPTABLE.

7 posted on 07/22/2014 3:14:49 AM PDT by Enterprise ("Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire)
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To: Hugh the Scot

He understands completely. Quit pussyfooting around and just get it done.


8 posted on 07/22/2014 3:15:34 AM PDT by Enterprise ("Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire)
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To: Politicalkiddo

It is common sense at its best.


9 posted on 07/22/2014 3:16:20 AM PDT by Enterprise ("Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire)
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To: Enterprise

Actually, there are simple and apparently painless methods of causing instant loss of conciousness and quick death.

For example, quickly replace the air in the death chamber with nitrogen or another inert gas. Out like a light very quickly. Death in a few minutes. Let the chamber sit at 100% nitrogen for half hour, pump in air to replace, go in, certify death, go home.

Or why not use some of that confiscated heroin to induce a massive overdose? Presumably the killee will go out not only painlessly, but with a big smile on his face.

This whole mess is emblematic of an American attitude that causes a whole bunch of similar problems. We prefer to have things appear to be neat, tidy and painless, even if they cause a great deal more actual damage.

A few examples:

The logical approach to dealing with non-violent (and possibly even mildly violent) first offenders is a good flogging. Humans have a mental mechanism whereby pain induces a desire to avoid whatever caused the pain. So why not use it? Instead, we lock young guys up in prison, pretending that’s more humane, where they run immense risk of sexual or physical assault much more damaging than a reasonable flogging. I know that given the choice I’d take a flogging followed by a week facedown in the hospital over a month in the slammer with hardened criminals.

Boxing. Old-time bare-knuckle boxing was bloody and brutal, no doubt about it. So we add pillowy gloves to minimize the cutting of the skin that causes the blood to flow. Result: less blood and boxers develop brain damage that makes them “punchy” from the brain bouncing off the walls of the skull repeatedly. Without gloves, that just didn’t happen. A person simply cannot hit somebody hard enough in the head to do that kind of damage without breaking his hands. No gloves, lots of blood, little longterm damage to the fighters. Gloves, little blood, fighters usually brain damaged.

Football: This one is similar to boxing. Rugby is played quite roughly, yet the brain damage common in American football players is seldom seen. The “armor” worn by American footballers allows and encourages them to hit much harder than Rugbyists can without seriously injuring themselves. So the padding encourages more severe injuries, it doesn’t prevent them.

There are multiple other examples of our national tendency to trade the appearance of nonviolence for a reality of worse damage. Very sad.


10 posted on 07/22/2014 3:19:16 AM PDT by Sherman Logan (Perception wins all the battles. Reality wins all the wars.)
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To: Enterprise

It can’t be cruel or unusual if the right guns are used. Blindfold, bammmmm! Over.


11 posted on 07/22/2014 3:22:09 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: Hugh the Scot
...naked upside-down crucifixions on TV once a week at halftime on the Monday Night Football game! Halftime! Monday Night! The Monday Night Crucifixions!
12 posted on 07/22/2014 3:24:53 AM PDT by Rodamala
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To: Sherman Logan

Perhaps that is why the feds bought all those .40 cal rounds. Might be planning a BIG TIME firing squad.


13 posted on 07/22/2014 3:25:45 AM PDT by DaveA37
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To: Enterprise
And choose random voters, for execution duty, just like jury duty.

Televised every Friday.

14 posted on 07/22/2014 3:36:39 AM PDT by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
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To: Enterprise
The guillotine is probably best but seems inconsistent with our national ethos ... The firing squad strikes me as the most promising.

So. Use the guillotine for wogs and the firing squad for civilized monsters. The last person France executed (1977) was a wog from North Africa who killed his girlfriend.

15 posted on 07/22/2014 3:36:53 AM PDT by cynwoody
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To: Enterprise

I don’t know, I always thought a quick death really isn’t punishment. I mean you feel pain for a few seconds then it is all over. What kind of punishment is that?

Instead what I propose is the “Sick and tired” method of execution. What you do is take the criminal, tie him in a straight jacket, place him a cement cell (no pads on the walls) and on the ceiling of these cells out of reach are giant 1000 watt speakers capable of reaching the decibel levels of jet engines.

Then once you lock the door, you play this tape over and over until the criminals head explodes or he smashes his brains out on the wall...........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJxmpTMGhU0


16 posted on 07/22/2014 3:37:23 AM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (Hitlery: Incarnation of evil.)
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To: Enterprise
I remember the last line from Breaker Morant as Morant is facing his firing squad.

Shoot straight, you bastards Don't make a mess of it!

17 posted on 07/22/2014 3:39:43 AM PDT by xp38
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To: DaveA37
I guess mid-caliber pistol rounds would do the job, but seems kind of silly when there are much more effective ammo types available.

BTW, in traditional firing squads the person being executed very frequently was still alive when the shooting stopped. Which led to the tradition of the officer in charge finishing the guy off with one or more pistol shots to the head.

Which of course brings up the fairly obvious question of why not skip the preliminaries and go straight to the finale, as the Chinese do.

18 posted on 07/22/2014 3:40:23 AM PDT by Sherman Logan (Perception wins all the battles. Reality wins all the wars.)
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To: Enterprise

Hmmmm....... Hanging was not mentioned. It is cheap and Saddam Hussein taught us , quite effective.


19 posted on 07/22/2014 3:40:57 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12 ..... Obama is public enemy #1)
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To: Rodamala

I’m all for hosting executions at the stadium.
My complaint is that the electric chair is a single seater...I think we need to wire up the bleachers and eliminate the backlog (since waiting 20-30 years is now, “cruel and unusual”).


20 posted on 07/22/2014 3:43:56 AM PDT by outofsalt
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