Posted on 02/10/2017 12:27:23 AM PST by Brad from Tennessee
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi lawmakers are advancing a proposal to add firing squad, electrocution and gas chamber as execution methods in case a court blocks the use of lethal injection drugs.
House Bill 638 is a response to lawsuits filed by "liberal, left-wing radicals," said House Judiciary B Committee Chairman Andy Gipson, a Republican.
The bill passed the House amid opposition Wednesday, and it moves to the Senate for more debate.
Lethal injection is Mississippi's only execution method. The state faces lawsuits claiming the drugs it plans to use would violate constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment.
Mississippi hasn't been able to acquire the execution drugs it once used, and it last carried out an execution in 2012. The state has 47 people on death row , and some have been there for decades.
The 33 states with the death penalty all have lethal injection as the primary method of execution, according to the Death Penalty Information Center . The center says only Oklahoma and Utah have firing squad as an option; eight states have electrocution as an option; five have gas chamber as an option; and three have hanging as an option.
"I have a constituent whose daughter was raped and killed by a serial killer over 25 years ago and that person's still waiting for the death penalty. The family is still waiting for justice," said Gipson, an attorney and Baptist pastor who lives in the small town of Braxton, about 25 miles south of Jackson. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Firing squad is 3 or more riflemen. Double tap to the head is very quick. Recipient is dead in milliseconds.
Libs are all about choice right?
How ‘bout dismemberment? Doesn’t seem to be an issue w/ Leftists when it comes to abortion.
Personally, if the process used on livestock\pets is O.K., then it’s fine enough for humans: pneumatic piston into the brain pan, Rx cocktail, etc.
Can’t cry about one but not the other. Oh, hell, what am I thinking? The Left doesn’t deal in LOGIC....never mind.
Plus you sometimes get some memorable quotes from the perps at the end like this one from the end of Breaker Morant
Harry Morant: Shoot straight, you bastards. - Don’t make a mess of it!
I am all in favor of states having the option of a firing squad. Lethal injection is a disaster: with drugs that can be forbidden, experts needed who refuse to participate, and endless “cruel and unusual” arguments.
The electric chair and the gas chamber are also problematic.
But firing squads are inexpensive, cheap, any volunteer LEO is qualified to squeeze a trigger, very certain, as the 20th Century will attest, and really difficult to appeal on c&u grounds.
But what about the blood? No real problem there. Just make the condemned wear an absorbent vest, and you will just see a couple of holes in his shirt. Hood over the head.
What’s not to like?
Especially, as part of the legislation authorizing the firing squad, states must be sure that all death penalties include it as an option at sentencing, and one that can be selected by the authority tasked with carrying out the execution. That is, by the prison warden.
The reason for this is that if there is a big (Soros funded) push against lethal injection, for example, the warden can just say, “Fine. We’ll use the firing squad.” So the appeal becomes moot. The court may continue to fuss over lethal injection, but it will not do the condemned any good, as they will no longer be party to the case, thus defeating the purpose of the appeal to preserve the life of the murderer.
I thing they should go back to public hangings!!!
It’s probably the most fast and humane way; a bullet to the head.
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I watched a video of WWII executions by firing squad. Nine shooters were used, the shots were to the chest and death seemed to be quick with no suffering.
I don’t understand why execution by firing squad (or a point blank shot to the back of the head with a pistol) is so controversial. From my point of view, being fried in an electric chair seems much more like “cruel and unusual punishment” than being shot.
If the state used the same method(s) used by the perp, the perp would have a difficult time arguing the punishment was cruel and unusual.
Assuming the firing squad has ten people, with one blank, I think we'll know the result.
They probably pay for law enforcement and prison guards to conduct target practice anyway.
Two birds with one stone.
Castro’s preferred method.
Agree public executions should be brought back. Also, public stocks. Various forehead scarlet letter tattoes so we know what we’re up against.
Not much of a fan of the Death Penalty.
Shooting someone though sounds a lot more direct and honest then euthanizing them through a drug cocktail.Live by the gun,die by the gun....cleaner that way.
Also,a lot less likely to get a botched execution.
Arizona used to hang their death row inmates until the mid 1930’s, I believe. It was then that we hanged a woman whose head popped off when she dropped. The blood-stained rope is still on display in the museum at the Arizona State Prison in Florence.
There’s always baseball bat, boxcutter and blowtorch...
My FReeper profile suggests how I could live without the death penalty...
Right in the brain!! Very humane. Not waiting on drugs and feeding these convicted monsters.
Prisoners’ necks need to have better tensile strength. There’s an Army field manual on executions which specifies the length of drop dependent on the weight of the convict. With the advent of generation supersize, it may need revision. Error on the side of caution: use steel cable and a shallow drop. Let ‘em twist.
Look, squirrel...
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