To some in Utah, the grisly 19th century nature of a firing squad clashes with this state's modern image. With a booming economy revolving around computer software and ski tourism, Utah is to be the host of the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Utah's 19th century history helps explain why it is now the only state in the union to allow condemned prisoners to choose to die by the firing squad.
In an early radical phase, Utah's Mormon settlers believed that the sin of murder could only be atoned by shedding the murderer's blood.
"There are sins that the blood of a lamb, of a calf, or turtle doves cannot remit," Brigham Young, a Mormon prophet, told his pioneering flock here in 1856. "But they must be atoned by the blood of man."
For more than 30 years, this belief in blood atonement, and the practice of polygamy, blocked accommodation between Utah's Mormon "Kingdom" and Washington. In 1890, the church formally disavowed polygamy and blood atonement. In 1896, Utah joined the Union as a state. But repeated pronouncements by the Mormons, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have been unable to stamp out polygamy or a belief in blood atonement.
"Most Mormons in Utah would use blood atonement as their rationale for supporting capital punishment in general, and the firing squad in particular," said L. Kay Gillespie, a professor of criminal justice at Weber State University in Ogden. He said 39 of the state's executions since 1847 had been by firing squad.
Utah Debates Firing Squads In Clash of Past and Present January 1996
More parsing and obsfucation.
Glad you understand that your post is more parsing and obfuscation. The death penalty has historically been used as punishment for murder. Have you ever seen a person that died from hanging? Not a pretty sight. And before you ask, yes I have seen several. I have also seen gunshot deaths. Neither is pleasant. Personally, as a Mormon, I would either go for the death penalty for murderers and child molesters or exile to a well guarded island for life.