Personally, I’ve always thought that the pool of executioners should be drawn exclusively from the elected representatives who voted in favour of the bill establishing the death penalty.
But surely “There’s only a 1-in-6 chance that I didn’t shoot him” isn’t very comforting odds?
Should the prison guards assigned to watch over incarcerated-for-life inmates be drawn from the elected representatives who favor life imprisonment instead of capital punishment?
I’m pretty sure that all the people who came up with “punishable by death” in the laws have been dead for a while.
Even those who voted to re-instate capital punishment are probable either dead or too close to it to reliably operate a rifle.
Back to OP: Here is one person who would have no trouble being the shooter. In some cases, my shot just might be a little low and hit the gut instead of the heart.
Anyone who says they support the death penalty should have the strength of conviction to be the executioner.
Not a job I want, but one I could perform if for some reason I needed to do it.
They’re doing it wrong!!!
Step 1. Aim rifle downrange
Step 2. Make sure not to stand in a circle.
Okay, a question for experienced shooters (I haven’t fire a rifle in many years, but I used to):
I can’t believe that a blank round in a high-powered rifle is going to have anywhere near the kick, or general feel of a actual bullet being fired. Is it really possible for a highly trained/experienced rifleman to not know/feel what he’s firing? Or is it just one of those plausible deniability things?
…
Still better odds than Atlantic City.
You couldn’t kick me in the nuts long enough for me to accept the job though.
Probably a stupid question but - I understand this is all a result of a shortage of the necessary drugs which is caused by the EU ban on exporting them to countries that have the death penalty. Why can’t these drugs be manufactured within the US? Presumably the technical knowhow and suitable laboratories are all present.
I know I’m going to be the minority but – yeah, I could do it. Don’t know that I would volunteer but since I’m in favor of the death penalty, figure out how I’m going to get picked and make sure its fair, and I’ll aim for the mark. No issue there for me.
Ask me on a bad day, say after some particularly senseless crime happens, and maybe I’d even volunteer. But I would hope not.
The worst of all are those homeopathic lethal injections.
Some of those have been going on for years.
FWIW, Robert Elliott, executioner at Sing Sing who put to death Sacco and Vanzetti and about 380 others, was strongly opposed to the death penalty and stated he hoped it would be abolished.
I couldn’t do it myself, for personal moral reasons.
But…I don’t consider the people who do it to be immoral. We’re allowed to have different beliefs, and, as capital punishment has the official sanction of law, I’m stuck having to accept it even if I disagree with it.
I don’t know so much philosophically. I’m generally anti-death penalty due to the number of mistaken convictions.
Still, I’d be willing to look that Boston Marathon bomber in the eye and shoot him in the face.
Reasons:
There’s no question of his guilt.
He killed a child, among others.
He was trying to inspire others to do the same.
Fuck him, BOOM, headshot.
Bare feet or lifts?
What do you suppose something like that pays (firing squad)?
Apparently, nothing:
http://news.yahoo.com/frustration-pushes-utah-toward-renewed-firing-squads-090004298.html
I mean, I’m glad they’re not forcing Corrections Officers to do it, but soliciting volunteers like this just feels oogie. Not to mention that shooting a man through the heart is a hard ticket to get.
This is from a different culture, but I think a lot of people will find this interesting. It’s an interview with an executioner in Saudi Arabia.
The reason I added that is lets say that after it happens, they notice one or two bullets missed the target completely. They would want to know who missed and why.
Are they just a bad shot? Did they deliberately miss?
Thing is they would want every bullet to hit within the target zone to maximize the hit and a quick kill. Soemone not doing their job jeopardizes that.