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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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Comment #81 Removed by Moderator

To: 23 Everest

Nooby ??? Youve only been here 5months...

and if you are only 57 you are still a kid...

about that opinion you claim you have...

You dont seem to remember that everyone else has one too...


82 posted on 06/17/2010 7:41:28 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: 23 Everest

I see you’ve been getting flak for being a noob so much you put it on your homepage, nice touch.

Don’t worry about it, some folks use it to needle, others, well...your experiences may differ.

Hang in there, we were all there at one time.

FRegards,
SZ


83 posted on 06/17/2010 7:43:49 PM PDT by SZonian (We began as a REPUBLIC, a nation of laws. We became a DEMOCRACY, majority rules. Next step is?)
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To: Tennessee Nana

Thanks.

Your secret is safe with me.


84 posted on 06/17/2010 7:43:57 PM PDT by OldPossum
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To: MindBender26

Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.


85 posted on 06/17/2010 7:44:27 PM PDT by Religion Moderator
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To: BlueMoose; reaganaut; Tennessee Nana; Godzilla; Zakeet
The issue of “Blood Atonement” is a classic in the charges used against the LDS Church by anti-Mormons. It originated with the so-called Danite band formed in Far West, MO by Sampson Avard (a group condemned by the LDS Church from the beginning). Blood Atonement continues to rear its ugly head because critics would rather find something sinister to lodge against the LDS Church, than to accept the facts.

You know, BM, it wasn't just BY who taught it. Note this quote by Joseph Smith:

"In debate, George A. Smith said imprisonment was better than hanging. I replied, I was opposed even if a man kill another, I will shoot him, or cut off his head, spill his blood on the ground, and let the smoke thereof ascend up to God; and if ever I ever have the privilege of making a law on that subject, I will have it so" (Joseph Smith, History of the Church, vol. 5, p. 296)

This was probably the beginnings of where Young got it.

86 posted on 06/17/2010 7:44:38 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: SZonian

Thank you for the kind words. That’s why I’m a Freeper, folks like you.


87 posted on 06/17/2010 7:46:05 PM PDT by 23 Everest (Zero, Glittering Jewel of Colossal Ignorance. Day 59)
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Comment #88 Removed by Moderator

Comment #89 Removed by Moderator

To: BlueMoose; Religion Moderator

do you want to actually post your source, I know those arent your words you are plagiarizing them.

Or do you want me to source all of those for you?


90 posted on 06/17/2010 7:54:07 PM PDT by reaganaut (The LDS church doesn't PRAY FOR the weak, they PREY ON them.)
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To: Colofornian

UGH, I gave him a whole list of quotes...


91 posted on 06/17/2010 7:55:12 PM PDT by reaganaut (The LDS church doesn't PRAY FOR the weak, they PREY ON them.)
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To: BlueMoose; Colofornian; Religion Moderator

MOre spin from Fair/Farms/shields and still NO SOURCING!

Make all the excuses you want, but the fact remains that Blood atonement was a common teaching (as shown by VERY long list of quotes) and the LDS downplay it or deny it becauese it hurts PR.


92 posted on 06/17/2010 7:57:15 PM PDT by reaganaut (The LDS church doesn't PRAY FOR the weak, they PREY ON them.)
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To: BlueMoose; reaganaut; Tennessee Nana; SZonian
I repeat: Except for the atonement of Christ, which is or should be a part of the creeds of all Christian churches; and except for the use of the term “blood atonement” as a synonym—nothing more—of “capital punishment” where “enlightened” members of the Church are concerned, there is no such a doctrine in this dispensation as blood atonement

Pretty convenient, BM.

Here only 40 years ago, Joseph Fielding Smith became a "prophet" of the Lds church...and he never rescinded what he said earlier about blood atonement...in fact, he claimed Joseph Smith taught it!:

"Man may commit certain grievous sins - according to his light and knowledge - that will place him beyond the reach of the atoning blood of Christ. If then he would be saved, he must make sacrifice of his own life to atone - so far as the power lies - for that sin, for the blood of Christ alone under certain circumstances will not avail. Joseph Smith taught that there were certain sins so grievous that man may commit, that they will place the transgressors beyond the power of the atonement of Christ. If these offenses are committed, then the blood of Christ will not cleanse them from their sins even though they repent" (Doctrines of Salvation, 1:135,138).

So were Joseph Smith and Joseph Fielding Smith both liars, deceived, or false prophets, BM?

Are you going to come back and say to us, "Well, Smith was 'prophet' in 1972, but the Mormon 'dispensation' period only goes back to when Monson became 'prophet.' We have a 'dispensation changing of the prophetic guard' celebration every time a 'prophet' dies and is replaced."

How utterly convenient and a sorry excuse for a weasel word that you got from other Mormon apologists, eh, BM?

Note to the rest of you: Notice that lds apologists try to stick in a small qualifier word that they very well know the meaning to, in order to allow them to make a claim and try to have some integrity, all the while they must know that most readers are not going to see that word ("dispensation") and know what time-period flag the claimer is making.

So I'm going to ask you a direct Q, BM: When did whatever "Mormon 'dispensation'" period you're referencing begin, and when will it end?

93 posted on 06/17/2010 7:59:04 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

more lying for the Lord from the LDS camp.


94 posted on 06/17/2010 7:59:55 PM PDT by reaganaut (The LDS church doesn't PRAY FOR the weak, they PREY ON them.)
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To: reaganaut; Colofornian
they’re good people when I see them out and about.
95 posted on 06/17/2010 8:02:33 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: Tennessee Nana; OldPossum

Read one news report which said the blank is a wax bullet which kicks back as if it were a real round.


96 posted on 06/17/2010 8:04:30 PM PDT by Brugmansian
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To: BlueMoose

Your posts 81 and 89 have been removed because they are not sourced. When quoting any online source be sure to include the url or link. And when quoting an offline source be sure to include the name of the book or publication, issue, author, etc. Moderators need the information to confirm the source, verify copyright compliance and search for affiliation with banned sources.


97 posted on 06/17/2010 8:04:39 PM PDT by Religion Moderator
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To: Brugmansian

Oh OK

So the shooters will know after all wont they ???

Whether they had the real bullet or not...


98 posted on 06/17/2010 8:07:27 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: Tennessee Nana

The news report I read said they won’t know. Kick back from a wax bullet is the same as from a lethal bullet. If that is true...I don’t know. Any gun people care to comment?


99 posted on 06/17/2010 8:09:32 PM PDT by Brugmansian
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To: Tennessee Nana

Sorry...read too fast...they won’t know if they have a wax or lead bullet.


100 posted on 06/17/2010 8:10:16 PM PDT by Brugmansian
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