Current Events > Idaho brings back firing squads if they run out of lethal injections

(+) Yeah! (+)

Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of stabbing four Idaho college students to death, could face a firing squad if convicted.

At his arraignment Monday, Kohberger stood silent when asked to enter a plea, leaving the judge to formally enter a not guilty plea on the suspects behalf. A trial is scheduled for October 2.

The prosecution has sixty days to notify the court if they want to pursue the death penalty and because of a new Idaho law that goes into effect on July 1, the state could administer the death penalty by firing squad if lethal injection drugs are not available

Idaho governor Brad Little signed the law on March 24 after it passed both chambers of the Idaho Legislature.

Throughout my life in public service, I have supported capital punishment when our justice system determines death is the only appropriate sentence for a person who committed a heinous crime, Little wrote in a Transmission Letter. I am signing House Bill 186 because I support policies that enable the State of Idaho to successfully carry out the death penalty.
Idaho lawmakers began to consider alternative ways to administer the death penalty due to drug shortages needed for lethal injection.

We currently have eight people sitting on death row in Idaho and their sentences of execution cannot be carried out due to corporations refusing to sell Idaho the chemicals necessary to carry out lethal injections for executions, said Republican representative Bruce Skaug, the bills co-sponsor.

In 2016, Pfizer, the largest federally approved manufacturer to supply products for lethal injection, blocked the use of its drugs for execution. The European Union, which abolished the death penalty in 1983, has also introduced strict export controls in the last decade that prevent lethal injection drugs from being supplied to the US for capital punishment.
Skaug originated the bill last year when the Idaho Department of Correction had to cancel the scheduled execution of Gerald Pizzuto Jr. because it could not obtain the necessary chemicals for legal injection. Pizzuto has spent more than three decades on death row for his role in the 1985 killing of two prospectors.

Deborah Denno, a Fordham professor of law who specializes in the death penalty, said that the new law is a good step forward.

The firing squad is the quickest, most certain, and least painful method, and its the only method for which we have experts who conduct it, she told The Spectator. None of these adjectives applies to lethal injection.

Despite passing both chambers of the majority Republican legislature earlier this year, the bill was not without opposition.

Its psychologically damaging to anybody who witnesses it, anybody who has a hand in it, anybody who plays a role in the aftermath and the clean-up, said Republican senator Dan Foreman, a retired police officer.

Idaho is not alone in legalizing firing squads for execution. Four other states Mississippi, Utah, Oklahoma and South Carolina have laws allowing firing squads if other methods are unavailable, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Denno said that more states should follow suit.

Its inexcusable and perplexing that states havent done so, given this countrys forty years of challenges and botches with lethal injections, she said.

Still, firing squads remain an uncommon method for execution. The last person to be executed by firing squad was convicted killer Ronnie Lee Gardern, who was executed in a Utah prison in 2010.

Full Article: https://thespectator.com/topic/idaho-return-firing-squad-bryan-kohberger/

https://i.imgur.com/FNqoYZD.jpg

There's something super American about the EU going "Oh so sorry chaps, it's just we're in a bit of tizze here as we're not fully comfortable with our drugs being used to kill people." and Republicans literally replying with "Alright we'll just shoot the bastards then!"

I guess sterotypes come from somewhere.

How about they abolish the death penalty instead.

SomeLikeItHoth posted...

How about they abolish the death penalty instead.

^

this country is ass backwards

Oh how quick the backslide has happened.

If I had to choose, I'd pick the guillotine for myself.

But really, the death penalty is the kind of power that humans just can't use responsibly, if there was such a thing.

I've heard about innocent men and women executed by crooked prosecutors who have evidence they didn't commit the crime but don't want to look weak by showing compassion nor saying "I fucked up".

Look at George Stinney Jr. as an example. He was only 14 when he was wrongly executed.

No death penalty.

No exceptions.

Nitrogen asphyxia is considered quick, painless, and reliable. Of course, a lot of death penalty advocates don't want quick, painless, and reliable. They want suffering and vengeance.

ai123 posted...

No death penalty.

No exceptions.

Nitrogen asphyxia is considered quick, painless, and reliable. Of course, a lot of death penalty advocates don't want quick, painless, and reliable. They want suffering and vengeance.

Isn't an inert gas like helium or neon considered a better option than nitrogen?

Trumble posted...

Isn't an inert gas like helium or neon considered a better option than nitrogen?

You likely have better information than I do. Nitrogen is the only one I know that's been tested.

There's a brilliant BBC documentary from 2007 called 'How to Kill a Human Being' presented by right wing UK politician Michael Portillo, in which he seeks a humane method of execution. He actually tries nitrogen asphyxia to the point of very nearly dying.

It's widely available online for free if anyone's interested.

SomeLikeItHoth posted...

How about they abolish the death penalty instead.

This.

But it's honestly macabre how there are people discussing what is supposed to be a more civilised execution.

"The firing squad is the quickest, most certain, and least painful method, and its the only method for which we have experts who conduct it"

I have no idea how a firing squad is supposed to be the "quickest, most certain and least painful method".

The death penalty is state-sanctioned revenge killing and needs to be done away with.

While I believe there are so crimes so terrible that execution is appropriate, I am very aware that it has been applied carelessly and unfairly, and the situation is barely improving. Therefore, I am against the death penalty. But even if it's going to happen anyway, firing squad seems especially barbaric, for everybody involved.

tankboy posted...

While I believe there are so crimes so terrible that execution is appropriate, I am very aware that it has been applied carelessly and unfairly, and the situation is barely improving. Therefore, I am against the death penalty. But even if it's going to happen anyway, firing squad seems especially barbaric, for everybody involved.

Dont they randomly assign some of the squad blanks? Or is that either an urban legend or just a rare or outdated practice?

And if the death penalty cant be abolished then the next best thing is at least making it as clean as possible. Not just to avoid needless suffering on the part of the condemned, but also so their family doesnt have to bury a damaged body (open casket).

Dark_Arbron posted...

Dont they randomly assign some of the squad blanks? Or is that either an urban legend or just a rare or outdated practice?

I have heard that, but even if true, all the executioners have to aim, which means they have to closely watch somebody get shot (multiple times, to death).

Why is the Party of Pro-Life so hellbent on killing citizens?

darkace77450 posted...

Why is the Party of Pro-Life so hellbent on killing citizens?

Because its not about life, its about cruelty and punishment

Trumble posted...

helium

Tonight on America's Funniest Last Words

darkace77450 posted...

Why is the Party of Pro-Life so hellbent on killing citizens?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDO6HV6xTmI

Barbaric. Have they brought back child labor and voter suppression also? These states seem to be following the same script.

brestugo posted...

Barbaric. Have they brought back child labor and voter suppression also?

yes

Karovorak posted...

I have no idea how a firing squad is supposed to be the "quickest, most certain and least painful method".

Never gone hunting?

4 30-06s to the heart will hit your off switch instantly.

Especially with some modern controlled expansion ammo

brestugo posted...

Barbaric.

Lethal injections arent pain free though.

It's like a burning cocktail coursing through your veins," says Lubarsky, referring to potassium chloride. "Once it reaches the heart, it stops the heart, and you do die. But in the process there is a period of just intense and searing pain.

https://www.npr.org/2020/09/21/793177589/gasping-for-air-autopsies-reveal-troubling-effects-of-lethal-injection

Anyone who has ever participated in the administration of the death penalty, from the executioners themselves, to the judges, prosecutors and juries that sought and handed down the sentence, ought to be rounded up and imprisoned.

It's not as pretty but seems far quicker and painless than lethal injection. Still are justice system is very flawed and I think the death penalty should only be useable if it was never really a question of who did it like a mass shooting. Since that's not the case I don't support the death penalty anymore.