- Quickdraw McLaw
- 17 Comments
- 121 Views
- Zane Floyd’s attorney’s are suggesting firing squad over the State’s proposed lethal injection. [TNI]
- Henry Ruggs ordered to wear ankle monitor that measures alcohol 24/7. [RJ; 8NewsNow]
- Former prosecutor Thomas Moskal weighs in on troopers investigation of the box truck driver that struck and killed cyclists. [RJ]
- The SNAWA is honoring Chief Judge Linda Marie Bell next week.
From the linkedin above "You simply cannot be an expert in criminal defense…" But doesn't the state bar say you "simply cannot" call yourself an expert at all?
Yes but no. We used to prohibit entirely. Now you can advertise being Board Certified in a select number of fields.
Firing squad? Sure, why not. It's over quickly.
As to Ruggs? He should be executed in the same manner of death as he caused his victims. I understand the environmental hazards of burning him in his gasoline soaked corvette. Burning him at the stake over oak will be a satisfactory substitute. Seriously. This man should not die painlessly.
12:44-Yes, firing squad is the most humane among the four common methods available until the lethal injection came along.
There was the cyanide gas chamber, hanging, electrocution, and the firing squad, which was the least used of the four, and limited to a few western states.
perhaps states moved away from the firing squad as it was viewed as more barbaric as we wound up with a shredded, mutilated corpse. But, as 12:44 suggests, it was over almost immediately and that is what is important.
The other three–electrocution, hanging and cyanide gas, can be very problematic, elongated deaths.
So, which category does the lethal injection fall into–the category with the firing squad as in each case it is presumably over quickly, or does it belong with the other three which can be agonizing and protracted? It probably belongs more in the firing squad category.
In theory, it is quick and painless(although not as instantaneous as the firing squad) but as everyone knows we have encountered problems–the manufacturer of the chemicals are producing no more at this time, Nevada has no existing chemicals in stock, or the ones we have may be losing their potency, etc.
So, considering everything, for those who support the death penalty, by default the firing squad appears to be the most "humane"(for those who believe "humane" and "death penalty" can occur in the same sentence.)
You state firing squad is limited to a few western states. South Carolina, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah are the only states that authorize use of the firing squad as a means to put someone to death. So while some may think of Mississippi and South Carolina as "Old West" types of political scenes, they are actually in the East.
2:16, I assume the poster realizes those states are in the South.
So, are you in the business of finding hyper-technical essentially meaningless errors, rather than addressing the substantive points at issue?
When you file a responsive brief do you spend all your energies attacking a miss-spelling or grammatical error, rather than dealing with the legal substance of the arguments?
The fact that very few states still maintain firing squad, and that the poster referenced "Western" states has nothing to do with the discussion of what is humane or effective or not.
And, just so you know, the state, of those you mentioned, that used firing squad far more than those others combined, is Utah, which is in the West.
Also, before you try to act so smart and clever, try to disguise the fact that before you posted you looked up on the internet the states that have used firing squad. After all, anyone who already knew that info. would obviously be someone quite knowledgeable and therefore confident enough not to nitpick at others.
Please grow and play fair. Don't be an Eddie Haskell.
"miss-spelling" hah, gotcha! The rest of your post is inconsequential.
I took that as some very high brow irony.
Shit. Give me 300mg of OXY and I'll show you a humane death. Here you go Zane, open up……
2:50– My my you anger easily. There was a factual assertion; it was incorrect. The facts were corrected without name calling, something your post did not avoid, but did not challenge the remainder of the premise that firing squad has some level of speed within which death sets in. Since you have asked about responsive briefs, the answer is that a limited opposition is limited to those points with which my client disagrees. We do not waste prose or paper repeating points with which there is no disagreement.
Who is the ego centric idiot @5:43? Whomever you are, go away please.
The court finds in favor of @250. Costs and fees payable by @543. File your Memorandum of Costs
1:28, yes firing squad is by far the quickest(and therefore perhaps most humane) of the standard four methods.
Now, lethal injection, if performed properly, even if supposedly painless is still somewhat more protracted in that the individual experiences the horror that they are gradually dying.
And the main problem is the difficulty with Nevada obtaining the chemicals, and all that. Don't know if that's more a case that they are not being compounded at this time, or more that because we so rarely execute anyone in Nevada, that we are not diligent about arranging the stocking of it.
At any rate it's all a bunch of sound and fury signifying almost nothing. Zane Floyd committed his murders in the last millennium. Tracy Petrocelli has been on Nevada Death Row since the 70's.
Let's stop wasting all this time and resources acting like we care or are serious about executing the worst offenders. Nevada is not and never will.
It's not like after all this time there are legitimate evidentiary, witness problems or DNA challenges remaining in either of those two cases.
@ 1:38 "the main problem…is the difficulty in obtaining the chemicals"
The indigent defense people have convinced the various states that only certain "special" chemicals can only "humanly" be used. A cocktail of various sorts.
This is absolute BS. Have you ever put down a dog? Was it done humanly, quickly and without distress to the animal? Commonly used is sodium pentothal, a CNS depressant.
We routinely and humanly dispatch people too. End stage hospital patients are often OD'd on morphine, a CNS depressant. It is a well known, little discussed, loophole to avoid assisted suicide issues, because it "makes the patient comfortable"
Either of the above would take care of the drug cocktail unavailability issue.
Utah had a firing squad execution about a decade ago. Utah was one of just one of two states to actually execute a person by firing squad. The execution a decade ago brought terrible press for Utah, so they abolished it. Then, when the drugs for lethal injectino became difficult, if not impossible to get, the Legislature reinstated firing squad, but only as a backup.
The origins of Utah's firing squad law is very interesting. During the Mormon Reformation in the 1850's, Brigham Young began to preach a doctrine known as "blood atonement" which the mainstream LDS Church has long abandoned and will sometimes pretend was never a thing. But it was. Brigham Young taught there are some sins for which a person can only be forgiven by spilling their own blood, including murder. Many of the fringe polygamist Mormon fundamentalist groups still teach blood atonement. Death by firing squad was intended to allow a person to choose a method of death that would satisfy the blood atonement doctrine. At one point, Utah also legalized guillotine as a method of capital punishment, but I don't believe it was ever actually used. No other state has legalized the guillotine.
2:06 here. One last thought. If we are going to have the death penalty, the firing squad should be the preferred method. It is instant and provides the most certainty against prolonged, inhumane pain for the prisoner. Legal injection is preferred not for the prisoner, but for the rest of us. By killing someone in an environment with the trappings of a medical procedure, we can lie to ourselves and say the act was "humane". Let's be honest with ourselves and society, we are killing a human being. Let's do nothing but firing squads and broadcast them live on TV in prime time. Let's make sure as many people see the truth as possible. Let's do it in a way that harms the prisoner the least.
I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death.