
Utah firing squad death announced on Twitter - Concours
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_and_canada/10348685.stm
======
hugh3
Incidentally, does anyone know why in the US system the governor is given the
ability to stop an execution?

I suppose it's the same thing as the ability of the President to grant
pardons. But what's the logic behind giving the executive branch the ability
to overrule the judicial branch in these sorts of circumstances?

~~~
robin_reala
I think the more pressing concern is why, in the US system, the government has
the right to execute a person at all.

~~~
mynameishere
Is that a trick question? Because it is clearly allowed by the constitution?
And in the "US System", whatever that is, the states can further limit
penalties.

~~~
sliverstorm
> Because it is clearly allowed by the constitution

I think that's what he's got a problem with

------
tomjen3
Interesting, but does anybody know why they are all so mad that he was shot
(as opposed to killed with a lethal injection)?

It just seems that with shooting, we at least know what will happen and how
not to fuck it up.

~~~
rgrieselhuber
Part of it is probably the fact that he was still moving after being shot five
times. Lethal injection would most likely hurt less.

~~~
patrickk
I thought the way it was done was that 4 of the 5 firing squad members fire
blanks? In fact Wikipedia mentions that this is the case in Ronnie Lee
Gardner's execution in particular:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execution_by_firing_squad#Blank...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execution_by_firing_squad#Blank_cartridge)

~~~
rgrieselhuber
The story I read said that only one of the bullets was a blank, but the
pattern you mention is the one I have also heard of more often. When I think
about it though, that would be even more risky as many people have survived
single gunshot wounds, at least for a little while.

~~~
patrickk
Actually I did a little more reading (offline, no link unfortunately) and
apparently in this execution four of the five firing squad members _were_
firing live rounds, and one fired a blank. The reasoning for this is that each
person can say "well, at least there's a chance that I fired the blank". Over
time, each man will believe he fired the blank, to console himself. The
weakness in this concept is that an experienced marksman will be able to tell
the difference between a live round and a blank (more recoil from a live
round).

------
BenoitEssiambre
Wow plus the tweet itself has a tone of religious extremism with an implied
consent from god as a justification for an atrocity.

I'm not even sure I'm against the death penalty but doing it in the manner of
the Taliban is sick.

~~~
astine
I didn't get the impression that Governor Shurtleff gave the go ahead out of
religious conviction at all. The only religious element was a contract between
the assumed mercy of God and the convict's apparent lack thereof.

~~~
mattmillr
Agreed. Since "May God have mercy on his soul" is pretty much boilerplate
language for executions, we should look at the difference in what Shurtleff
says.

When he writes, "May God grant him the mercy he denied his victims," the
emphasis is on Garner's crime.

The "May God grant him the mercy..." part is more likely a cultural artifact
than religious extremism.

~~~
sliverstorm
Same as how our money has 'In God We Trust' written on it. If you're to get up
in arms about simple phrases like that, better start objecting to US currency
too.

~~~
hugh3
I do object to US currency for having that phrase, since that's an endorsement
of religion by the Government itself.

I don't object to the governor's comments, which were made by the Governor as
an individual.

~~~
sliverstorm
It never really sounded like religious endorsement to me. When the President
takes the Oath of Office and says "So help me God", I never took that as
religious. If he was to utter "God help us" when faced with a particularly
grave and insurmountable situation, I wouldn't be thinking 'gee he is
religious isn't he'.

------
detcader
So the Right has found another medium with which to elicit irrational
emotional excitement like oh-so-many reality TV shows from its inbred
voterbase... news?

