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Execution By Firing Squad Will Be First In 14 Years [Mormon - Open]
NPR ^ | June 17, 2010 | Jenny Brundin

Posted on 06/17/2010 6:28:06 PM PDT by Colofornian

Utah death-row inmate Ronnie Lee Gardner is set to be executed by a firing squad on Friday. Thirty-five states allow the death penalty, but death by firing squad remains an option only in Utah.

SNIP

Every detail of April 2, 1985, is burned into her memory. Gardner was in court on a murder charge when he tried to escape. An accomplice slipped him a gun, and he shot and killed an attorney and also severely wounded George "Nick" Kirk, who was a bailiff. Kirk didn't die, but VelDean Kirk says he wasn't the same active, cheerful man anymore. She says his final years were marked by excruciating pain and depression from a sedentary life.

His daughter, Tami Stewart, feels sorry for Gardner, but she can't forgive him. She imagines him in the death chamber. "He's going to feel that fear that he put into every one of those men. He's done. We've given him more than enough," Stewart says.

Gardner did get one choice: how he would die. In court, after being told he'd exhausted his appeals, the 49-year-old made his preference known.

"I would like the firing squad, please," he told the court...

...Utah's last firing-squad execution 14 years ago attracted more than 150 news crews from across the globe. They were interested in one thing: the method of execution.

SNIP

Utah historian Will Bagley says the reason this method of execution exists is rooted in Utah's history as a Mormon sanctuary. "I think we need to be honest about it. We have the last firing squads in the country as a legacy of Mormon theology," Bagley says.

Some early Mormon leaders believed in blood atonement for the most egregious sins. "To atone for those, Jesus' blood didn't count. You had to shed your own blood," Bagley says.

(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...


TOPICS: Current Events; History; Other Christian; Theology
KEYWORDS: beck; bloodatonement; brokenrecord; gardner; glennbeck; hischoice; lds; mormon
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From the article: Utah historian Will Bagley says the reason this method of execution exists is rooted in Utah's history as a Mormon sanctuary. "I think we need to be honest about it. We have the last firing squads in the country as a legacy of Mormon theology," Bagley says. Some early Mormon leaders believed in blood atonement for the most egregious sins. "To atone for those, Jesus' blood didn't count. You had to shed your own blood," Bagley says.

Lds "prophet" Brigham Young consistently and repeatedly taught "blood atonement" -- where Mormons treated Jesus' blood as rather "anemic" to applying to serious sins...

Lds say they don't teach it today; but that's different than saying Young was "wrong" or a "false prophet" to teach it.

1 posted on 06/17/2010 6:28:06 PM PDT by Colofornian
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To: Colofornian

Is there anything that happens in our country that you don’t try and blame on a Mormon. lol.


2 posted on 06/17/2010 6:29:48 PM PDT by Invincibly Ignorant
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To: Colofornian

So often we hear “we don’t believe that anymore!” but Ronnie Gardner seems to believe it and I knew of other inmates in Utah who believed it as well.


3 posted on 06/17/2010 6:33:20 PM PDT by reaganaut (It's futile to talk facts to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance)
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To: Colofornian

To quote Gary Gilmore “Let’s do it”..


4 posted on 06/17/2010 6:33:21 PM PDT by GSP.FAN (Some days, it's not even worth chewing through the restraints.)
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To: Colofornian

Some early Mormon leaders believed in blood atonement for the most egregious sins. “To atone for those, Jesus’ blood didn’t count. You had to shed your own blood,” Bagley says.

Lds “prophet” Brigham Young consistently and repeatedly taught “blood atonement” — where Mormons treated Jesus’ blood as rather “anemic” to applying to serious sins...
_________________________________________________

How blasphemeous

Mormonism is not Christianity


5 posted on 06/17/2010 6:36:08 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: Invincibly Ignorant

Ignore him.

He is a fool, a troll or a bigot.... and probably at least two out of the three.

Everyone is on to his game.


6 posted on 06/17/2010 6:36:36 PM PDT by MindBender26 (Prezdet Obama is what you get when you let the O.J. jury select a president !)
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To: Colofornian

Does the person making this post believe in the death penalty?


7 posted on 06/17/2010 6:37:49 PM PDT by truth_seeker
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To: Invincibly Ignorant

I doubt it. What kind of life to dredge up a plethora of anti-Mormon stories each day so you can post them to an Internet forum?


8 posted on 06/17/2010 6:38:46 PM PDT by thecabal (Destroy Progressivism)
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To: MindBender26; Colofornian

More like none of the above...which is more than I can say for you, Geraldo.


9 posted on 06/17/2010 6:38:55 PM PDT by reaganaut (It's futile to talk facts to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance)
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To: thecabal

What kind of life to dredge up a plethora of anti-Mormon stories each day so you can post them to an Internet forum?

- - - -
What kind of life when you don’t care about anyone’s soul but yours, if that?


10 posted on 06/17/2010 6:40:04 PM PDT by reaganaut (It's futile to talk facts to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance)
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To: truth_seeker
Does the person making this post believe in the death penalty?

Yes I do.

I don't believe that shedding your blood, though, atones [reconciles you to God] for your sin.

The concept of atonement by Jesus Christ is 100% fine. Atonement as an English word was developed by English reformer William Tyndale in the 1500s. It came from putting together three words - at - one - ment -- being at one/reconciled.

Having your blood shed for murder doesn't reconcile you to anyone.

11 posted on 06/17/2010 6:42:17 PM PDT by Colofornian (The Lds Lament: If only the 'Restoration' had occurred in a 'Once upon a time' era...)
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To: Invincibly Ignorant

Other than this being Utah, what does LDS have to do with executing this POS. So they let him have a firing squad. I’m OK with that, but this idea of a painless death does not account for the pain and suffering of the victim(s) of this POS.

He surrendered his humanity in the commission of a capital crime,


12 posted on 06/17/2010 6:42:59 PM PDT by Ouderkirk (Democrats...the party of Slavery, Segregation, Sodomy, and Sedition)
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To: GSP.FAN
To quote Gary Gilmore “Let’s do it”..

Midnight tonight.

And the article says 150 media outlets there to cover it live.

13 posted on 06/17/2010 6:43:33 PM PDT by Colofornian (The Lds Lament: If only the 'Restoration' had occurred in a 'Once upon a time' era...)
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Comment #14 Removed by Moderator

To: Colofornian

So is it that you are against the death penalty, or just that it is taking place in Utah?


15 posted on 06/17/2010 6:45:56 PM PDT by Grunthor (Getting married, T minus 10 days.)
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To: Ouderkirk
Other than this being Utah, what does LDS have to do with executing this POS.

Did you read the article? Excerpt:

Thirty-five states allow the death penalty, but death by firing squad remains an option only in Utah... Utah historian Will Bagley says the reason this method of execution exists is rooted in Utah's history as a Mormon sanctuary. "I think we need to be honest about it. We have the last firing squads in the country as a legacy of Mormon theology," Bagley says.

The article also says the reason for the intensified media interest in this is the method of death.

16 posted on 06/17/2010 6:46:31 PM PDT by Colofornian (The Lds Lament: If only the 'Restoration' had occurred in a 'Once upon a time' era...)
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To: Grunthor
So is it that you are against the death penalty, or just that it is taking place in Utah?

Neither.

My post #11 covers an answer.

17 posted on 06/17/2010 6:47:21 PM PDT by Colofornian (The Lds Lament: If only the 'Restoration' had occurred in a 'Once upon a time' era...)
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To: Colofornian

“Yes I do.”

Good. You agree with the Utah civil law.

Mormonism has nothing to do with this execution.


18 posted on 06/17/2010 6:48:07 PM PDT by truth_seeker
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To: Colofornian

Why care what the reason for the manner of death is? So long as the sentence is carried out, why would you care?


19 posted on 06/17/2010 6:48:43 PM PDT by Grunthor (Getting married, T minus 10 days.)
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To: Colofornian

So what does this have to do with the execution? Nothing ; just an excuse to blast a persons faith.


20 posted on 06/17/2010 6:51:49 PM PDT by BlueMoose
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