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States Consider Firing Squad as Alternative to Lethal Injection
Wall Street Journal ^ | Jan 28, 2014 | Jacob Gershman

Posted on 01/28/2014 12:56:48 PM PST by Second Amendment First

As death penalty states struggle to obtain drugs suitable for lethal injections, more old-fashioned methods of executing prisoners are getting another look.

Lawmakers in Missouri and Wyoming have introduced measures this month that would give their states an option to use firing squads — instead of lethal drugs — to carry out executions. Another bill proposed by a Virginia lawmaker would authorize death by electrocution if lethal injection isn’t possible.

The measures have surfaced as a number of pharmaceutical firms have barred corrections departments from buying drugs that could be used in executions, forcing states to scramble for other suppliers and to experiment with alternative drugs.

The botched, 26-minute execution of an Ohio inmate earlier this month — using a cocktail of chemicals never before used in a U.S. execution — underscored the problem.

“This isn’t an attempt to time-warp back into the 1850s or the wild, wild West or anything like that,” Missouri state Rep. Rick Brattin, who sponsored the fire squad legislation, told the Associated Press, which reported on the bills. “It’s just that I foresee a problem, and I’m trying to come up with a solution that will be the most humane yet most economical for our state.”

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: banglist
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To: PapaNew
Just warm up Old Sparky and fry the maggots.

Genesis 9:6 English Standard Version (ESV) 6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.

101 posted on 01/28/2014 3:43:06 PM PST by SVTCobra03 (You can never have enough friends, horsepower or ammunition.)
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To: Second Amendment First

How about tied up in a gunnysack and pitched in the lake?


102 posted on 01/28/2014 3:44:46 PM PST by kjam22 (my newest music video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7gNI9bWO3s)
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To: PapaNew
Somebody has already paid "an eye for an eye" for those criminals and their heinous acts, so unjust double jeopardy is in play here.

Wrong 'eye' for payment.

? Countless personal and professional examples testify to the fact that there is only one way victims of savagery can recover from the hurt and angst of victimization: forgiveness

Agree, for the survivors. Justice is within the purview of the state, where there is the death penalty, that judgement has been made. The state has to need of forgiveness as an impersonal entity.

- What about the cost? Oh, OK well I guess there is such thing as killing for convenience, but let's take another tack which hits directly at our medieval penal system: prisoners should be productive and at least pay their way in prison.

So the argument that has merit that you don't refute is deflected to another pipe dream.

103 posted on 01/28/2014 3:47:47 PM PST by xone
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To: xone

Clever, but doesn’t refute the argument against unjust capital punishment.


104 posted on 01/28/2014 3:51:45 PM PST by PapaNew
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To: SVTCobra03

Thanks, but of course Genesis 9:6 was fulfilled on the cross of Christ 2000 years ago.


105 posted on 01/28/2014 3:52:58 PM PST by PapaNew
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To: xone

Haven’t seen much refutation here.


106 posted on 01/28/2014 3:54:25 PM PST by PapaNew
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To: PapaNew
>> their debt to society can never be repaid
>
> Has yours been repaid?

Depends on how you're qualifying the question: if you are considering being a productive member of society (which can quickly degrade into evaluating a person's worth on cost/value) -- perhaps.
If you're talking strictly about the legal world, which this thread would indicate, then yes.

>> it is also unjust to make a man forever pay for his crime (like denying him all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of a citizen) even after serving his sentence...The only right way to do it is to make the death one of relative speed and some dignity
>
> Now that's a new one I haven't seen before. Interesting and creative but I'm pretty sure there's nothing in criminal law that states that as a reason for capital punishment. No, but that's an argument similar to taking the life of a baby, elderly, or infirmed because someone in their manifest great wisdom has decreed it's better for them to die. God has given individuals the right to life, which is sacred.

I don't agree with the last part; but it is true that there are things which cannot be restored — we can never give life to the murdered or to eradicate/rebuild what despoilment the raped experienced.

The great injustice that we see in our legal system today are those that society has been brainwashed to think are just. Take, for example, some people expressing a that's what he deserves-attitude toward the raped in prison. (Rape is evil and wrong, period. *mdash; There is no way that true justice can, by nature, involve the unjust. [It can be terrible.]) That people accept that a felon, having served his sentence, can still be deprived of rights is an injustice that weakens the power of those rights for everyone. Take, for example, the mandatory minimum sentences for drug charges — sometimes the amounts are so small that it is likely it was planted [and the behavior of the police certainly doesn't engender trust].

In the end, we do great injustice by making our system incapable of meting out swift and severe [restorative] retribution* — there are no ways to have a punishment be done and over… it's always the extraction of years and years of life.


* Something like, say, a whipping for insubordination or a single moment of indiscretion [in the military] could be done and over and let everyone get back to life… instead, there's really only two modes: slap-on-the-wrist and heavy-handed punishment (like being busted in rank, from something that literally took years to achieve).

107 posted on 01/28/2014 3:54:29 PM PST by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: PapaNew

Look, I had a rough childhood, teen years, and had been robbed of my twenties because of controlling abusers. Like them, I was presented with a lot of choices to choose evil. I had a TON of them presented to me when I was technically homeless, living in adult foster care in a ghetto. I chose the hard way, the way that would keep me from going from bad to worse.

Talk to anyone who had a rough childhood, but managed to avoid committing crimes and hurting other people.

A lot of killers don’t have bad childhoods, or parents, or people who hurt or neglect them. Some of them turn horrendously rotten despite all the advantages to lead a clean life.

I do know that trials should be conducted like forensic examinations and heavy penalties for giving false witness and the State should certainly be liable if an innocent person is executed.


108 posted on 01/28/2014 3:58:14 PM PST by CorporateStepsister (I am NOT going to force a man to make my dreams come true)
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To: PapaNew

Libs rarely see anything new, just the same old same old no surprise. You make assertions, not arguments.


109 posted on 01/28/2014 3:59:23 PM PST by xone
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To: PapaNew

I spent a ton of time on California’s death row. You should try it. I came away, even more in favor of the death penalty. BTW, most inmates DO work in the joint. Sorry pop, I don’t buy the anti death penalty thing.


110 posted on 01/28/2014 4:00:34 PM PST by Mark17 (Chicago Blackhawks: Stanley Cup champions 2010, 2013. Vietnam Vet 70-71 Msgt US Air Force, retired)
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To: OneWingedShark

“Retribution” and “punishment” serve no just or legitimate purpose. Again, your acts, my acts, the criminal’s acts, and everyone else’s acts were totally paid for, punished and condemned on the cross of Christ 2000 years ago. So punishment is double jeopardy. Therefore, punishment is an illegitimate and unjust purpose in the penal system. The legitimate purpose of dealing with dangerous criminals is incarceration to protect society from danger.


111 posted on 01/28/2014 4:05:38 PM PST by PapaNew
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To: xone

I give you assertions and reasons for my assertions. You give nothing.


112 posted on 01/28/2014 4:07:28 PM PST by PapaNew
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To: Mark17

Experience doesn’t refute moral and legal truth like the injustice of double jeopardy. Nevertheless, I’m curious why you came away from death row in favor of the death penalty.


113 posted on 01/28/2014 4:09:27 PM PST by PapaNew
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To: Mr Ramsbotham; Second Amendment First

“Nitrogen asphyxiation.”

In a high pressure chamber, then suddenly reduce the pressure to atmospheric.


114 posted on 01/28/2014 4:14:46 PM PST by GGpaX4DumpedTea (I am a Tea Party descendant...steeped in the Constitutional Republic given to us by the Founders)
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To: Second Amendment First

Hemlock tea worked for Socrates.

Its free, it works, and its humane.

Just ask Socrates. He described his own death as painless and easy.


115 posted on 01/28/2014 4:36:13 PM PST by ConradofMontferrat ( According to mudslimz, my handle is a HATE CRIME. And I HOPE they don't like it.)
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To: red-dawg

Energy efficient and ‘green’ too!


116 posted on 01/28/2014 4:49:39 PM PST by skepsel
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To: PapaNew
I’m curious why you came away from death row in favor of the death penalty.

I was always in favor of it. I had to deal with them on a personal level. I talked to them face to face. I read their files. I spent the majority of my time with GP. I read their files too. I thought a substantial amount of them should have been on the "row" also. The death penalty is not meant to be revenge, though some may think it is. It is not meant to be a deterrent, but if it does that, it is ok too. It is meant to be punishment.

You are entitled to your opinion, and I respect that. I just don't agree with it. Later bro.

117 posted on 01/28/2014 5:35:59 PM PST by Mark17 (Chicago Blackhawks: Stanley Cup champions 2010, 2013. Vietnam Vet 70-71 Msgt US Air Force, retired)
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To: PapaNew

It goes back to the middle ages, where private wars, or feuds were frequent. A nobleman, or notable, would hold court and render justice. As the common law caught on, a judge would take over from these manorial courts, and so the power and prestige of the king was behind the decision. IAC, I think that the death penalty should stand in exceptional cases, and for convicts who kill other convicts.


118 posted on 01/28/2014 5:46:10 PM PST by RobbyS (quotes)
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To: PapaNew
> for the protection of society.

The most effective way to protect society is to remove the offenders.

Permanently.

Your argument simply doesn't work.

119 posted on 01/28/2014 7:53:33 PM PST by NorthMountain
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To: Second Amendment First

What’s wrong with using hungry dogs?

Love, Dennis


120 posted on 01/28/2014 8:12:08 PM PST by NonValueAdded (It's not the penalty, it's the lack of coverage on 1 Jan. Think about it.)
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