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Shouldn't we celebrate condemn's request that he "would like the firing squad, please"?

By Douglas A. Berman

I am intrigued by the media attention being given to a Utah death row defendant's decision to select the firing squad as a method for his execution.  Here are the details from this Salt Lake Tribune account: Shackled at his ankles and wrists and wearing an orange jump suit, Ronnie Lee Gardner leaned forward in his chair Friday and uttered seven words that will place Utah in the international spotlight. "I would like the firing squad, please," Gardner said, his voice choking up. Choosing bullets over lethal injection may have nothing to do with making headlines for Utah -- the first state to execute a killer after the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 and the only to allow inmates to die by firing squad. Gardner's cousin, Jerry Hainsworth, said Gardner told him a few years ago: "I'd rather do it that way because I've been shot a bunch of times...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on April 24, 2010 (boomark / email).