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 ...
Yes, that is correct.
It was a sim game where you ‘built’ heaven and hell. The main characters was this perky little angel and a demon named Wormwood (but the angel nicknamed the demon “Wormy”).
One of MrR’s favorite lines was Wormy stating “Demons do NOT drink root beer”.
Thank you for the clarification.
Thank you.
Was told I would be divorced in three years. It's been 47 years and I'm still waiting. BTW he didn't like Alaska Native ladies. what a hoot.
Vow of profit but the Limo is not his, he just uses it when the church that he controls allows him to.
Acutally, we were talking about your comment that us antis on here work for the ‘money makers’. An implication that those who run ‘anti’ ministries do it for the money.
There are exceptions (like crooks like this guy) but almost always they are charlatans like Smith rather than real pastors.
People go into real ministry (not televangelism) to preach the word of God, not to get rich.
So, yes I stand by my statement that pastors are generally poor.
Most I know work two jobs.
Same here.
Ah yes and I think the statement was that not one gets rich from the ministry. now that you have change you opinion to generally. I can except that change.
“No one involved in ministry gets rich from it.”
I said no one GOES INTO ministry to get rich.
Ok, I will make an amendment since we were specifically discussing the ‘antis’ that you said were the ‘moneymakers’.
“No one involved in anti Mormon ministry gets rich from it.”
You took a specific statement and made it general.
Although actually dialoguing with you for once instead of your usual non-sequiturs is nice.
Except when it applies to them of course.
But everyone knows what you meant.
Yeah, when they don’t have anything else on their side, they have to go to that.
Follow the convo, BM.
Ok
And i now know that it has been clarified.
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