Legal Commentary

Utah Schedules Firing Squad Execution for June

By Jeralyn

Ronnie Lee Gardner, his appeals exhausted after 25 years on daath row, has chosen the firing squad for his June 18 execution.

How is it carried out? From a TalkLeft post in 2003 quoting a news article no longer online:

....A hood will be put over the condemned man's head and a target will be pinned over his heart. The executioners will fire simultaneously from gun portals in a separate room at the inmate, seated in a chair about 30 feet away. One of the five rifles will contain a blank so that no one will know who fired the fatal shots.

[More...]

How it started:

Utah's use of firing squads predates statehood in 1896 and is a remnant of the early Mormon belief that bloodshed is a required punishment for taking a life, said Richard Dieter, director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

A legislator in New Hampshire in 2009 introduced a bill to restore executions by firing squad.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on April 24, 2010 (boomark / email).