I’m surprised at how many states allow execution by firing squad. I though Utah was the only one (remember Gary Gilmore - Wikipedia? A South Carolina man is scheduled to be executed in the manner tonight (March 7). He also had the choice of lethal injection or the electric chair. South Carolina uses three shooters - all with live ammunition, while Utah uses five shooters - four with live ammunition, and one with blanks (unknown to the shooter)…
Yikes! With only three shooters there seems to be a chance that not enough will hit the heart directly. Hopefully the shooters are trained enough to not jerk the trigger. And they adjusted the sights for 15 feet otherwise all of the shots will be off. For that matter none of the rifle I have shot could even be adjusted to zero that close. Most of them bottom out at 50 or 100 yards. I think one of the bullets that hit Gilmore was in the shoulder.
This was the fourth time there has been a firing squad execution in the US since the death penalty was reinstituted. The other three were in Utah in 1977, 1996 and 2010. This one went well as these things go.
Between that, injection and electric chair, I’d choose the bullets too.
I thought the idea with multiple shooters is that only one of them shot an actual bullet, and the others had blanks or something. (The idea that each shooter didn’t know if their rifle was the one w/ the bullet, and thus the odds of them being the executioner were low.)
I thought it was that all but one of them had a bullet, so there would be plenty of bullets, but no one shooter knew for certain he’d taken a man’s life.
While I am against legal execution (I don’t think it deters any sort of crime), if you are going to do it, firing squad seems to be the most reliable if done correctly.
Also, I have no idea how you wouldn’t know you had a blank. The difference between firing a live .308 round (what SC used) and a blank would be noticeable. I think anyone witnessing this would also know who had the blank. Seems like a dumb thing to do either way. If you don’t want to kill a man, don’t sign up to be on the firing squad. I’m sure it isn’t compelled duty.
Also timely as Idaho is getting ready to start shooting people to death like Kohberger:
You certainly would after watching this documentary:
I would rather be crushed by a sperm whale falling from high altitude but they are highly improbable and often accompanied by a sardonic bowl of petunias.
