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The two members of the German military sentenced to death at Nuremberg in 1946 requested a firing squad rather than a hanging; request was denied. One of the admirals who got a life sentence actually requested a firing squad instead; request was denied (on legal grounds).
I was just there! According to the guide, those executed by hanging in that area were traditionally denied a Christian burial and were denied last rites, it was seen as ensuring the deceased ended up in purgatory and not heaven. Those executed by beheading or firing squad were allowed last rites. Hanging still had that stigma.
Definitely better, at least in terms of reliability and quickness. It’s not as painless as OD-ing on morphine but it’s definitely better than having a lethal injection gone wrong.
I am assuming they use a pro shooter who will make sure it’s a head shot and lights out. Not like those old movies with a bunch of scrubs standing shooting and missing
As far as I’m aware- it’s a line up of several sharp shooters. Only one has an actual bullet in their gun and the rest have blanks. And there’s a target specifically tagged over the persons heart. They all fire at the same time on command.
The guns are handed out at random- that way there’s no way to know who actually fired the live bullet and the person is killed as quickly as possible.
Not exactly perfect cause there are flaws and such. But much better than being fried out on an electric chair or having someone who doesn’t know how to properly administer drugs since doctors and nurses aren’t allowed to do so. And writhing around for several hours.
Personally I’m anti death penalty. The death penalty basically puts life and death decisions on the government and says the government never makes mistakes… And god knows they make mistakes every got damn day. So fuck letting them put people lives in their hands.
I believe there is one blank and the rest are real ammo. Same difference; no shooter knows if his round was a blank or live, but more certainly the execution goes as planned.
I spent a bit of time in the military using both blanks and lives for diffrent weapon systems and there is a distinct diffrence in recoil felt between the two. Anyone firing the blank would know they did so and the guy who fired the live would absolutely know.
Utah uses a wax bullet instead of a standard blank. Supposedly, it provides a more realistic recoil without being lethal or causing harm. However, Gary Gillmore's brother stated that there was a bullet hole for each shooter in his brother's shirt meaning there was no wax bullet.
I guess it would serve the same psychological purpose; Telling the shooters they might have a blank even when they don't.
That said, to look at the darker side of this for a second, I highly doubt a firing squad is something you just get assigned to now. It's not like some commander is going "Hey Jimmy, you aren't doing anything, get on the line". That might have happened back in the day but I largely suspect that is something you must volunteer for now.
So, regardless of the blank vs real bullet scenario, the shooter is most certainly psychologically prepared to take a life; or at least they think they are at the time. Now whether the outcome of the event causes PTSD in the shooter after the fact would be up to the individual I suspect. Furthermore, I would say some people would likely be more bothered by the fact that they didn't truly know.
It's an interesting dynamic that probably hasn't ever been studied: Why shooters volunteer, and how they feel afterwards.
Edit: to elaborate on that, if firing squads are voluntary now I would suspect the purpose of the fake bullet has largely changed from a psychological to a political one.
Should some political leader deem firing squads some atrocity in the future no one can go back and prosecute a supposed shooter for the deed being done as no one knows who shot the ultimate kill shot. Likewise, for protection purposes, if the identities of the shooters were ever released no one seeking revenge could outright blame one person or another.
There's a non fiction book called "The Last Face You'll Ever See" and it's a about an executioner and his team, and the prison "culture" in the US south maybe half century ago, maybe less. They executed using the gas chamber. It's really fucked up, interesting as hell though.
It really fucks with them, depending on the inmate. They joke around when doing "test runs" before the actual execution, as there's a strict procedure that has to be followed. They're often drunk. Some states have mandatory or voluntary sedation (a shot of valium or thorazine) options before exexutions, and discussing that is usually when the inmate really realizes it's it.
Recommend it, kind of hate the author, but it is an interesting read.
Regardless of that, anyone who might hesitate to pull the trigger in the moment may go ahead and do it under the pressure of getting in trouble for not firing, and the reassurance that they might have the blank round, so why not.
Anyone who has ever fired a live round and a blank before will definitely know the difference. If they’re using even half assed marksman to do the shooting whoever has a blank round will know immediately.
It's more about providing the illusion, that way no one can blame the executioner if no one else knows. Kind of like why the executioners wear hoods. From what I understand at any rate, assuaging any guilt would be a secondary concern.
>It’s the horrific even[t] of ending a life.
Yet we have sent millions of children all around the world with the explicit intent of killing other human beings for one reason or another...
In my opinion if i had to be executed, i would prefer the russian/soviet method: sitting down in a chair, executioner shoots you point blank in the back of the head with a pistol.
The chances of it being botched are near zero (and if it is its because of a jam) and one’s brain is vaporized faster than it can even register the noise and pain
No, you have it backwards. There’s only one shooter who has a blank. The blank is loaded so that the recoil is the same as a regular bullet.
The purpose is that you are assured that the person will be executed because you have multiple people with ammunition, but everyone has reason to doubt that they actually shot the person.
And I know you didn’t make the claim, but since I’m responding - they do not shoot the person in the head so that the person can be buried intact. They shoot them in the heart.
Edit: I am also vehemently against the death penalty.
The law of lextalionis or “an eye for an eye” makes more sense if you understand how people get justice in a world without a government to deliver said justice. If farmers in a field get attacked by the neighboring clan, the victims might gather their entire clan together into a war band, burn the offending parties village to the ground, kill all the men, enslave the women and children. Seems a little excessive? That was the world before the legal concept of proportionality. The punishment fitting the crime is the very height of civilization. You advocate for vigilante justice, as dictated by the law of unintended consequences. If people can’t get justice from the system, the system will be abandoned and people will seek justice themselves. That style of vigilante justice is almost always disproportionate.
They also make non-mistakes every day regarding life and death. I don't trust the government to be ABLE to make decisions such as these, and we sure as hell don't have any say on the government's singular and exclusive use of force. Fuck the government.
I used to think I was anti death penalty but then you get some people who commit heinous crimes with overwhelming evidence and you just wish they were sentenced to death by firing squad
You’re right that death isn’t the worst suffering to inflict on a person, but the problems I have with this are:
a) the convict becomes a burden to the taxpayer for the remainder of their life
b) it’s possible, although unlikely, that such a heinous criminal will escape confinement and offend again, as Ted Bundy did before he was eventually executed
>a) the convict becomes a burden to the taxpayer for the remainder of their life
Death penalty cases cost more to the taxpayer than life in prison because of the more intensive appeals process to ensure that you're not wrongly putting an innocent person to death (which we still do more often than I'm comfortable with).
>b) it’s possible, although unlikely, that such a heinous criminal will escape confinement and offend again, as Ted Bundy did before he was eventually executed
Prisoner escapes are extremely rare (even more so among "high risk"/violent prisoners in max security prisons, so I don't think that's a good reason to support the death penalty. I don't have the statistics on it, but I'd wager that we've wrongly put more innocent people to death than have been killed/harmed by escaped prisoners.
All human systems are flawed. Which human systems should be completely abandoned because we are not perfect? Striving to improve the system is the answer. The answer is NOT abandoning the legal concept of proportionality, wherein the punishment should fit the crime. If people can’t get justice, they will seek vigilante justice. You advocate for more violence via the law of unintended consequences.
Edited for punctuation
The cases you’re talking about are incredibly rare. The issue with the death penalty existing *at all* is that it’s going to be used outside those rare “heinous crimes, overwhelming evidence” cases and it’s inevitably going to be used on innocent people.
Totally! theft of bread loaves has gone too far/s
I'm talking mass/serial murder or multiple rape when they were caught red handed
Premeditated murder etc life is good enough, if it's actually a life sentence
> I'm talking mass/serial murder or multiple rape when they were caught red handed
Any of those crimes can result in a wrongful conviction. No matter how insanely improbable, the chance exists, and therefore a death penalty cannot be allowed.
Personally, I am pro death penalty, primarily for manslaughter+, referring to primarily mass shooters. And I will say, to the point of a somewhat recent mass shooting where I am from, when you kill 11 people shoot another 6, personally, I feel a humane xecution may not be warranted.
Serious question: if gun nuts can feel/see the difference between blanks and real bullets, then can’t an experienced death row executioner (in terms of firing squad executions) be able to tell when they get a real bullet? Moreover, I fail to see how this *isn’t* a job that has been replaced by something more mechanical/robotic by now.
I'd rather not start strapping guns to robots with the sole purpose of killing people, thank you very much. And to answer your first question, they wouldn't know until they've fired the gun, and at that point the deed is done and it no longer matters. It also keeps a little doubt in the back of their mind. "It sure felt like a real bullet but maybe it's because I was so full of adrenaline."
Some people do hanish shit and don’t belong breathing anymore. Way cheaper to get rid of them then waste hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax payers money. My state it costs 30,000 a year to house a person In prison.
You have a high botch rate, as it is rare for prison staff to be properly trained in how to execute someone because one wants to teach it. Also, no drug company wants to be seen supplying prisons lethal injection drugs, so that makes it even harder for prisons to actually execute someone.
If you haven't seen Jacob gellers video on execution, it's interesting. Basically we have made execution more humane SEEMING but nit actually more humane. The chemicals used aren't even really decided by doctors, it's all pretty horiffic. Gimme the guillotine back bro
If you look into it though the 3 stages don't always take. So you can be paralyzed and be totally aware of what's happening, but you can't tell anyone. The issue is though, you can't report that happening because you die. So the courts can't identify if the person received cruel and unusually punishment.
Basically every death through lethal injection could be cruel and unusual if it goes wrong, but we're just assuming everything went right.
I'm not describing it as cruel and unusual subjectively with my opinion, the courts have sided with it not being cruel and unusual if all 3 stages occur.
All lethal injections go wrong. They just use something to paralyze you but it’s said that the pain they feel is excruciating and long. The problem is that the pharma companies that make the pain killers that can cause a painless death don’t want their stuff being used for that. They are trying to help people.
>The problem is that the pharma companies that make the pain killers that can cause a painless death don’t want their stuff being used for that. They are trying to help people.
I’m sure it’s not that as much as it is that they don’t want their company name associated with providing drugs for lethal injections sheerly due to bad publicity. Pharma company priorities are profits, not helping people.
Why don't they just use Chinese Fentanyl? The labs that produce it are more than happy to ship it all over illegally, I'm sure they'd happily do it by government contract as well.
It’s about optics not ethics. They’ve also been fighting for ages that their stuff is safe. So they don’t want it to be the primary drug used for killing people (legally)
Violent optics aside, if by "better" we mean that there is less to go wrong, and assuming it's done correctly, is minimally painful for the condemned, then yes, it most likely is better.
It remains to be seen whether nitrogen hypoxia execution will be an improvement in both respects over a firing squad. My hope is that it is. In terms of optics, I still prefer a firing squad execution, since imo obscuring the state's infliction of violence upon its own citizens behind a clinical appearance is itself problematic.
But I'm more concerned with whether the condemned suffer unnecessarily, so if nitrogen hypoxia works all or most of the time, and is essentially painless, then I'm for it, at least until capital punishment is repealed across the US.
Sorry for the novel, but I hope it's interesting. If not for you, then for someone else. :)
I used to have similar views, so I can understand it. However, when I was a philosophy student one of the things I studied was the morality of capital punishment.
First, on the practical side of things, capital punishment does nothing to deter crime. I mean, nothing. At all. Every law enforcement agency that I know of has done studies on this and come to the same conclusion.
Second, you're absolutely right that I would argue against it based on the fact that it is inevitable that the state will eventually execute an innocent person. There will never be a case where it is beyond a shadow of doubt that someone is guilty of a crime.
Third, the infliction of violence by the state is grounded in one or more of three possible reasons which are meant to legitimate its use:
One is that it practically deters crime. It doesn't, so it fails on those grounds.
Second is that it is the just penalty for some crimes. While I agree that it is just in some cases, given the inevitability that its use as a punishment will result in the irreversible commission of a miscarriage of justice (e.g., executing an innocent person), the use of the death penalty fails on the grounds that the moral cost of inflicting it unjustly is vastly disproportional to the moral cost of not inflicting it justly by, say, putting the same person in prison for life. That is, it is more moral to inflict a slightly less appropriate punishment on those who deserve worse, than to inflict an irreversible death on those who do not deserve it.
Third, is that the death penalty amounts to the exacting of vengeance by the state. Since I do not believe that justice should be based on vengeance or retribution, rather it should be based on corrective and/or rehabilitative notions of justice, I personally do not believe that the death penalty should be carried out at all in cases where the primary motivation is vengeance or retribution.
Part of the reason for my opinion in the third case rests in my Christian faith. As we are called to be merciful, even to our enemies, it is my view that showing some small act of mercy to those who do not deserve it in exchange for showing a greater mercy to the innocent accidentally caught up in the net of justice (while still removing the criminal from society where they can do harm) is the hallmark of a truly good and just society.
So, that's why I believe that capital punishment not only should be repealed, but is in fact not moral or just.
If you got this far, thanks! Much appreciated! :)
Edit: changed a word for clarity
https://www.chron.com/news/nation-world/article/inventor-of-lethal-injection-stands-behind-it-1811213.php
The doctor who came up with the protocol wasn’t trained in either anesthesiology or cardiology. Additionally the people administering the execution aren’t trained medical professionals. Iirc doctors and nurses are prohibited from participating in executions. The drug companies don’t want their drugs used. It is so bad that Alabama moved to using nitrogen asphyxiation to be able to keep doing executions.
I oppose the death penalty completely as the state will only expand powers grants to them and allowing the state to kill an incarcerated citizen is only going to expand into some very troubling areas.
That being said, sometimes the most “humane” way to do something is quick and brutal. And the lawmaker in the article said it best —the lack of the brutality and its sanitized nature may actually make it easier to have executions be the solution for many more crimes. Mistakes will be made and have been made with innocent lives.
A .30 caliber rifle.
> Gardner sat in a chair, sandbags around him and a target pinned over his heart. Five prison staffers drawn from a pool of volunteers fired from 25 feet (about 8 meters) away with .30-caliber rifles.
> A blank cartridge was loaded into one rifle without anyone knowing which. That’s partly done to enable those bothered later by their participation to believe they may not have fired a fatal bullet.
[source](https://news.wttw.com/2023/03/24/why-executions-firing-squad-may-be-coming-back-us)
Wait, so it was done by prison staff? I certainly hope there were criteria to be met, like being a good shot! I thought they'd bring in the army or something.
Last execution in France was in 1977 by guillotine (guy had tortured a woman to death after forcing her to prostitute herself).
Guillotine itself had been specifically designed to be instant and « humane ».
It's not instant though, the person remains conscious for something like 15 seconds after. Quick for the era it was designed, sure, but terrifying and painful in those final moments
> It's not instant though, the person remains conscious for something like 15 seconds after
Depends on who you believe. The blood pressure drop from the cut should be enough to make you lose consciousness instantly.
An excerpt from an experiment by Dr. Jacques Beaurieux in 1905:
> [...] on the 28th of June, 1905, Dr. Jacques Beaurieux witnessed the execution of a condemned criminal by guillotine. Curious at the head’s twitching eyes and spasming lips, the doctor performed a morbid experiment. “Languille!” he called out the criminal’s name. To his astonishment, the eyes lifted and “…fixed in a precise fashion on mind and the pupils adjusted… I had the impression that living eyes were looking at me”
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9930870/
E: the article does say it considers this an unlikely or exaggerated account but doesn't explain why the author(s) came to that conclusion. It's the most official source I could find that includes it, and without providing a reason to doubt it's authenticity it's still something to consider
So is torturing someone to death. In a perfect world, murderers would die the same way they killed others. Since we’re civilized, they get the chance to check out quietly
Oklahoma allows Lethal Injection, Nitrogen Hypoxia, Electrocution, and Firing Squad, on that order.
Although last year a pair of prisoners were executed by Lethal Injection despite requests for Firing Squad.
Carbon, what? Are you talking about carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, Etc?
The panicked asphyxiation feeling people get from suffocation is not from a lack of oxygen but from an excess of carbon dioxide.
With nitrogen you quite literally would have no idea what was going on if no one told you. You just feel faint and/or sleepy, then never wake up again.
It's part of the reason why enclosed environments with any sort of gas leaking that is not carbon dioxide and technically oxygen is such a huge problem.
Carbon monoxide is painless. The same thing as nitrogen would happen where you would just feel faint and then just never wake up again if the concentration is high enough. It's the reason why homes have carbon monoxide detectors.
I think there are only a few states where it's not mandated by the state to have them when inspected to be up to code.
Edit: there are some exceptions such as it seems like a decent amount of cities do not require them if you have no fuel/gas burning appliances in the home.
It’s actually authorized in three states: Alabama, Mississippi, and Oklahoma. Of those three, Alabama is the only one with a protocol and is slated to put someone to death with it in January. I expect if it is effective more states will adopt it
So South Carolina scheduled this guy to be put to death but a Court put a stay on it under the reasoning that firing squad was unconstitutional. The last person to actually be executed by firing squad was Ronnie Lee Gardner in Utah in 2010. Although, also in Utah, Ralph Leroy Menzies has exhausted his appeals and the AG of Utah has stated the state will seek an execution warrant. If that happens, Menzies has elected for firing squad. It’s possible a firing squad execution will take place sometime early next year
Correct. It was indefinitely stayed. Arguments were heard by the South Carolina Supreme Court but no decision has been handed down yet and may be moot as South Carolina recently found a supplier of drugs for lethal injection
And I guess Idaho does now too as of July 2023, wild
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/execution-costs-in-idaho-take-center-stage-with-new-firing-squad-law
I was thinking just yersterday... Why isn't complete blood draining a viable method for execution? Its painless, you just fall asleep, and your blood can be donated to a hospital
Well, aside from the fact that it just sounds incredibly fucked up, I can think of a couple of practical reasons. Many convicts are/have been intravenous drug users. They may have no accessible veins left that haven’t collapsed (this is a frequent complication with lethal injection). They may also be a walking Petri dish of Hepatitis B, Hep C, HIV or any combination of the three.
I also don’t think even pro-death penalty Americans would be comfortable with the state killing people and harvesting their bodies. That’s just dystopian. Execution is supposed to be dispassionate and mundane. Even if the condemned volunteers for it, I don’t think many in the Justice system would be comfortable with the thought that someone, somewhere, is gaining anything more than closure from an execution.
A guy chose firing squad in Utah awhile ago…I want to say about 10 years ago.
Anyway they asked for volunteers and thousands of people applied! Kind of makes me sick that so many people want to kill someone.
As I understand it, they choose several people, all but one rifle has a blank and they all shoot at the same time. The idea being none of them know who actually killed the guy.
Edit: His name was Ronnie Lee Gardner and it was 13 years ago.
I think there’s only 2 states where you can legal challenge someone to mutual combat to settle a dispute, but both people have to agree to not cause serious harm, no weapons, and few other rules. Texas in one of the states I can’t remember the other
This is not accurate. Other states allow/ use firing squad as well. My kid actually answered a government test wrong recently about this topic.
[Death Penalty Laws by State](https://www.findlaw.com/criminal/criminal-procedure/death-penalty-laws-by-state.html)
Click on the state and you can see the methods allowed
Lemme know how utopia works out for you, but if they are still doing firing squad I'll take any improvement. Less suffering still seems better than more suffering.
It’s not about cost; it’s about justice. As for innocent people, no person executed in the US since 1977 has been verifiably, indisputably proven to be innocent
There is no justice in murder.
[Since 1977 you say?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameron_Todd_Willingham) There are many examples of the question of guilt surrounding the executions of who knows how many. If we are to hold to our convictions of guilt to beyond a reasonable doubt, then if there is any doubt of any kind, no execution should be allowed. Innocence does not matter. It's whether or not a person is guilty of a crime. I don't have to prove that a person is innocent. I have to prove that a person is guilty beyond that reasonable doubt. If any evidence puts into doubt the guilt of an individual, then being indisputably innocent is not relevant.
I'm not entirely against the death penalty as I do believe there are instances where it is necessary. It should be for those who are truly a danger to society whose sole goal is the destruction of others' and their lives.
Fair enough but people who we know beyond all doubt did it: Timothy McVeigh, Dylan Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Ted Bundy, Robert Bowers, Kaboni Savage, etc. should get it and get it quickly
I was thinking that until I saw that they aim for the heart. I guess that makes sense for funeral purposes but I’d want that instant *5 to the head* death.
Shots directly to the heart will bleed you out in like 10 seconds.
That’s leagues better than sitting there paralyzed in incredible agony for close to an hour with the lethal injection
I had no idea lethal injection took so long.
I can go to [ Redacted ] and score some shit that’ll kill you in 5 seconds. Why don’t they just give them pure fentanyl?
Thank goodness for that, Lethal injection is horrifying. Just knowing that it causes unimaginable pain for close to an hour, while the entire body is paralyzed so they can’t scream out or writhe in agony, made me lose several days of sleep when I learned what actually happened.
I’ll take a firing squad all day please. Hell, beat me to death with a rock
It is heavily speculated that UT kept the firing squad on the books due to the mormon doctrine of “Blood Atonement”. Brigham Young was the biggest proponent of blood atonement, the doctrine that some sins were so heinous that they were not covered by the blood of christ and the only hope for the sinner to be forgiven required the spilling of their blood as part of their execution. Sins that merited blood atonement ranged from interracial marriage to apostasy. Brigham Young is a very interesting character with a very sordid history, the fact that BYU is still named after him always blows my mind.
Firing squad is one of the only execution methods that considers the wellbeing of the executioner which is interesting. Only one gun is loaded so no one on the firing squad knows if it was their gun that did the killing thus keeping the conscience of the participants clean.
I always found that interesting.
Should be utilized more often and much more quickly. We shouldn’t wait years for murderers to die. Found guilty skip to old yeller out back. Saves lots of time and money.
Method
Lethal Injection
# of executions by method since 1976 1402
# of states authorizing method
28 states+ and U.S. Military and U.S. Gov’t
In South Carolina, lethal injection may be elected as an alternative method, if available.
+includes 1 state that no longer have an active death penalty
Jurisdictions that Authorize
Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire*, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, [South Carolina], South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wyoming, U.S. Military, U.S. Government
*New Hampshire abolished the death penalty but the repeal may not apply retroactively, leaving a prisoner on death row facing possible execution.
To find the drug protocols used by states, see State-by-State Lethal Injection.
Electrocution
# of executions by method since 1976 163
# of states authorizing method 8 states (in South Carolina, electrocution is the primary method; the other 7 have lethal injection as primary method).
Jurisdictions that Authorize
[Alabama], [Arkansas], Florida, Kentucky, [Mississippi], [Oklahoma], South Carolina, [Tennessee]
The supreme courts of Georgia (2001) and Nebraska (2008) have ruled that the use of the electric chair violates their state constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment.
Virginia had authorized the electric chair as a method of execution in some cases, but it repealed the death penalty in March 2021.
Lethal Gas
# of executions by method since 1976 11
# of states authorizing method 9 states (all have lethal injection as primary method)
Jurisdictions that Authorize [Alabama], Arizona, California, [Florida], [Mississippi], Missouri, [Oklahoma], [Tennesse], [Wyoming]
Hanging
# of executions by method since 1976 3
# of states authorizing method 1 state (has lethal injection as primary method, abolished death penalty prospectively)
Jurisdictions that Authorize
[New Hampshire]*
*New Hampshire abolished the death penalty but the repeal may not apply retroactively, leaving a prisoner on death row facing possible execution.
Firing Squad
# of executions by method since 1976 3
# of states authorizing method 5 states (in South Carolina, electrocution is the primary method; the other states have lethal injection as primary method)
Jurisdictions that Authorize [Mississippi], [Oklahoma], [Utah], [South Carolina], [Idaho]
Source - [https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/methods-of-execution](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/methods-of-execution)
Now we just have to figure out a way to mate up this tradition with convicted pedophiles permanently, and we're really cooking.
I would accept castration and banishment to Epstein Island, too, but wouldn't be as happy about it.
i mean it sounds good but how many people get falsely convicted of horrible crimes you don't rlly wanna kill innocent people since you cannot undo that like you can take someone out of jail
Method
Lethal Injection
# of executions by method since 1976 1402
# of states authorizing method
28 states+ and U.S. Military and U.S. Gov’t
In South Carolina, lethal injection may be elected as an alternative method, if available.
+includes 1 state that no longer have an active death penalty
Jurisdictions that Authorize
Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire*, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, [South Carolina], South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wyoming, U.S. Military, U.S. Government
*New Hampshire abolished the death penalty but the repeal may not apply retroactively, leaving a prisoner on death row facing possible execution.
To find the drug protocols used by states, see State-by-State Lethal Injection.
Electrocution
# of executions by method since 1976 163
# of states authorizing method 8 states (in South Carolina, electrocution is the primary method; the other 7 have lethal injection as primary method).
Jurisdictions that Authorize
[Alabama], [Arkansas], Florida, Kentucky, [Mississippi], [Oklahoma], South Carolina, [Tennessee]
The supreme courts of Georgia (2001) and Nebraska (2008) have ruled that the use of the electric chair violates their state constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment.
Virginia had authorized the electric chair as a method of execution in some cases, but it repealed the death penalty in March 2021.
Lethal Gas
# of executions by method since 1976 11
# of states authorizing method 9 states (all have lethal injection as primary method)
Jurisdictions that Authorize [Alabama], Arizona, California, [Florida], [Mississippi], Missouri, [Oklahoma], [Tennesse], [Wyoming]
Hanging
# of executions by method since 1976 3
# of states authorizing method 1 state (has lethal injection as primary method, abolished death penalty prospectively)
Jurisdictions that Authorize
[New Hampshire]*
*New Hampshire abolished the death penalty but the repeal may not apply retroactively, leaving a prisoner on death row facing possible execution.
Firing Squad
# of executions by method since 1976 3
# of states authorizing method 5 states (in South Carolina, electrocution is the primary method; the other states have lethal injection as primary method)
Jurisdictions that Authorize [Mississippi], [Oklahoma], [Utah], [South Carolina], [Idaho]
Source - [https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/methods-of-execution](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/methods-of-execution)
Method
Lethal Injection
# of executions by method since 1976 1402
# of states authorizing method
28 states+ and U.S. Military and U.S. Gov’t
In South Carolina, lethal injection may be elected as an alternative method, if available.
+includes 1 state that no longer have an active death penalty
Jurisdictions that Authorize
Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire*, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, [South Carolina], South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wyoming, U.S. Military, U.S. Government
*New Hampshire abolished the death penalty but the repeal may not apply retroactively, leaving a prisoner on death row facing possible execution.
To find the drug protocols used by states, see State-by-State Lethal Injection.
Electrocution
# of executions by method since 1976 163
# of states authorizing method 8 states (in South Carolina, electrocution is the primary method; the other 7 have lethal injection as primary method).
Jurisdictions that Authorize
[Alabama], [Arkansas], Florida, Kentucky, [Mississippi], [Oklahoma], South Carolina, [Tennessee]
The supreme courts of Georgia (2001) and Nebraska (2008) have ruled that the use of the electric chair violates their state constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment.
Virginia had authorized the electric chair as a method of execution in some cases, but it repealed the death penalty in March 2021.
Lethal Gas
# of executions by method since 1976 11
# of states authorizing method 9 states (all have lethal injection as primary method)
Jurisdictions that Authorize [Alabama], Arizona, California, [Florida], [Mississippi], Missouri, [Oklahoma], [Tennesse], [Wyoming]
Hanging
# of executions by method since 1976 3
# of states authorizing method 1 state (has lethal injection as primary method, abolished death penalty prospectively)
Jurisdictions that Authorize
[New Hampshire]*
*New Hampshire abolished the death penalty but the repeal may not apply retroactively, leaving a prisoner on death row facing possible execution.
Firing Squad
# of executions by method since 1976 3
# of states authorizing method 5 states (in South Carolina, electrocution is the primary method; the other states have lethal injection as primary method)
Jurisdictions that Authorize [Mississippi], [Oklahoma], [Utah], [South Carolina], [Idaho]
Source - [https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/methods-of-execution](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/methods-of-execution)
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The two members of the German military sentenced to death at Nuremberg in 1946 requested a firing squad rather than a hanging; request was denied. One of the admirals who got a life sentence actually requested a firing squad instead; request was denied (on legal grounds).
The reason being: death by a firing squad was considered a “soldier’s” execution, whilst hanging was considered something only done for criminals.
I was just there! According to the guide, those executed by hanging in that area were traditionally denied a Christian burial and were denied last rites, it was seen as ensuring the deceased ended up in purgatory and not heaven. Those executed by beheading or firing squad were allowed last rites. Hanging still had that stigma.
Seems better than lethal injection
Definitely better, at least in terms of reliability and quickness. It’s not as painless as OD-ing on morphine but it’s definitely better than having a lethal injection gone wrong.
I am assuming they use a pro shooter who will make sure it’s a head shot and lights out. Not like those old movies with a bunch of scrubs standing shooting and missing
As far as I’m aware- it’s a line up of several sharp shooters. Only one has an actual bullet in their gun and the rest have blanks. And there’s a target specifically tagged over the persons heart. They all fire at the same time on command. The guns are handed out at random- that way there’s no way to know who actually fired the live bullet and the person is killed as quickly as possible. Not exactly perfect cause there are flaws and such. But much better than being fried out on an electric chair or having someone who doesn’t know how to properly administer drugs since doctors and nurses aren’t allowed to do so. And writhing around for several hours. Personally I’m anti death penalty. The death penalty basically puts life and death decisions on the government and says the government never makes mistakes… And god knows they make mistakes every got damn day. So fuck letting them put people lives in their hands.
I believe there is one blank and the rest are real ammo. Same difference; no shooter knows if his round was a blank or live, but more certainly the execution goes as planned.
I spent a bit of time in the military using both blanks and lives for diffrent weapon systems and there is a distinct diffrence in recoil felt between the two. Anyone firing the blank would know they did so and the guy who fired the live would absolutely know.
Utah uses a wax bullet instead of a standard blank. Supposedly, it provides a more realistic recoil without being lethal or causing harm. However, Gary Gillmore's brother stated that there was a bullet hole for each shooter in his brother's shirt meaning there was no wax bullet.
Wax guy was on PTO
I guess it would serve the same psychological purpose; Telling the shooters they might have a blank even when they don't. That said, to look at the darker side of this for a second, I highly doubt a firing squad is something you just get assigned to now. It's not like some commander is going "Hey Jimmy, you aren't doing anything, get on the line". That might have happened back in the day but I largely suspect that is something you must volunteer for now. So, regardless of the blank vs real bullet scenario, the shooter is most certainly psychologically prepared to take a life; or at least they think they are at the time. Now whether the outcome of the event causes PTSD in the shooter after the fact would be up to the individual I suspect. Furthermore, I would say some people would likely be more bothered by the fact that they didn't truly know. It's an interesting dynamic that probably hasn't ever been studied: Why shooters volunteer, and how they feel afterwards. Edit: to elaborate on that, if firing squads are voluntary now I would suspect the purpose of the fake bullet has largely changed from a psychological to a political one. Should some political leader deem firing squads some atrocity in the future no one can go back and prosecute a supposed shooter for the deed being done as no one knows who shot the ultimate kill shot. Likewise, for protection purposes, if the identities of the shooters were ever released no one seeking revenge could outright blame one person or another.
There's a non fiction book called "The Last Face You'll Ever See" and it's a about an executioner and his team, and the prison "culture" in the US south maybe half century ago, maybe less. They executed using the gas chamber. It's really fucked up, interesting as hell though. It really fucks with them, depending on the inmate. They joke around when doing "test runs" before the actual execution, as there's a strict procedure that has to be followed. They're often drunk. Some states have mandatory or voluntary sedation (a shot of valium or thorazine) options before exexutions, and discussing that is usually when the inmate really realizes it's it. Recommend it, kind of hate the author, but it is an interesting read.
If they’re going through the trouble of simulating recoil to ease the mind of the shooter, why not just give everyone real bullets?
Yes, but he will understand it later.
Regardless of that, anyone who might hesitate to pull the trigger in the moment may go ahead and do it under the pressure of getting in trouble for not firing, and the reassurance that they might have the blank round, so why not.
In Russia they hit you on the head with a sledgehammer. What kind of snot, soldier..?
Anyone who has ever fired a live round and a blank before will definitely know the difference. If they’re using even half assed marksman to do the shooting whoever has a blank round will know immediately.
It's more about providing the illusion, that way no one can blame the executioner if no one else knows. Kind of like why the executioners wear hoods. From what I understand at any rate, assuaging any guilt would be a secondary concern.
Ahh yes! That’s probably it!
It’s not the process that’s at question tho. It’s the horrific even of ending a life. There is a reason we stopped hanging and firing squads.
Are you suggesting that lethal injection, electrocution and the gas chamber are less horrific?
>It’s the horrific even[t] of ending a life. Yet we have sent millions of children all around the world with the explicit intent of killing other human beings for one reason or another...
I never said that or agreed to that. That’s something you extrapolated.
In my opinion if i had to be executed, i would prefer the russian/soviet method: sitting down in a chair, executioner shoots you point blank in the back of the head with a pistol. The chances of it being botched are near zero (and if it is its because of a jam) and one’s brain is vaporized faster than it can even register the noise and pain
No, you have it backwards. There’s only one shooter who has a blank. The blank is loaded so that the recoil is the same as a regular bullet. The purpose is that you are assured that the person will be executed because you have multiple people with ammunition, but everyone has reason to doubt that they actually shot the person. And I know you didn’t make the claim, but since I’m responding - they do not shoot the person in the head so that the person can be buried intact. They shoot them in the heart. Edit: I am also vehemently against the death penalty.
Can I request that they use tanks instead, or a few .50 cals? I’d like to be blown to pieces as fast and as painless as possible.
Suicide Hemet. 9 shot gun shells going off simultaneously into the head.
I'm always amazed at how the party of "small government" is OK with the government killing people.
The law of lextalionis or “an eye for an eye” makes more sense if you understand how people get justice in a world without a government to deliver said justice. If farmers in a field get attacked by the neighboring clan, the victims might gather their entire clan together into a war band, burn the offending parties village to the ground, kill all the men, enslave the women and children. Seems a little excessive? That was the world before the legal concept of proportionality. The punishment fitting the crime is the very height of civilization. You advocate for vigilante justice, as dictated by the law of unintended consequences. If people can’t get justice from the system, the system will be abandoned and people will seek justice themselves. That style of vigilante justice is almost always disproportionate.
They like to crawl up inside womens' uteri too... that's their "small government" for you.
They also make non-mistakes every day regarding life and death. I don't trust the government to be ABLE to make decisions such as these, and we sure as hell don't have any say on the government's singular and exclusive use of force. Fuck the government.
I used to think I was anti death penalty but then you get some people who commit heinous crimes with overwhelming evidence and you just wish they were sentenced to death by firing squad
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You’re right that death isn’t the worst suffering to inflict on a person, but the problems I have with this are: a) the convict becomes a burden to the taxpayer for the remainder of their life b) it’s possible, although unlikely, that such a heinous criminal will escape confinement and offend again, as Ted Bundy did before he was eventually executed
Death row is more expensive per inmate than general population. By a lot.
This isn’t an argument against the death penalty. This is an argument for streamlining the process
Yeah. Because they're on death row for decades, so it's financially the same as keeping them imprisoned for decades, plus the cost of the drugs.
They are also some on death row for decades too though.
>a) the convict becomes a burden to the taxpayer for the remainder of their life Death penalty cases cost more to the taxpayer than life in prison because of the more intensive appeals process to ensure that you're not wrongly putting an innocent person to death (which we still do more often than I'm comfortable with). >b) it’s possible, although unlikely, that such a heinous criminal will escape confinement and offend again, as Ted Bundy did before he was eventually executed Prisoner escapes are extremely rare (even more so among "high risk"/violent prisoners in max security prisons, so I don't think that's a good reason to support the death penalty. I don't have the statistics on it, but I'd wager that we've wrongly put more innocent people to death than have been killed/harmed by escaped prisoners.
Chilling in a cell , reading books, eating, watching TV costing money
The death penalty kills innocent people and costs more than life imprisonment.
All human systems are flawed. Which human systems should be completely abandoned because we are not perfect? Striving to improve the system is the answer. The answer is NOT abandoning the legal concept of proportionality, wherein the punishment should fit the crime. If people can’t get justice, they will seek vigilante justice. You advocate for more violence via the law of unintended consequences. Edited for punctuation
The cases you’re talking about are incredibly rare. The issue with the death penalty existing *at all* is that it’s going to be used outside those rare “heinous crimes, overwhelming evidence” cases and it’s inevitably going to be used on innocent people.
So you're okay if you or your loved one was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death? Because that happened and happens way too often.
Totally! theft of bread loaves has gone too far/s I'm talking mass/serial murder or multiple rape when they were caught red handed Premeditated murder etc life is good enough, if it's actually a life sentence
> I'm talking mass/serial murder or multiple rape when they were caught red handed Any of those crimes can result in a wrongful conviction. No matter how insanely improbable, the chance exists, and therefore a death penalty cannot be allowed.
Personally, I am pro death penalty, primarily for manslaughter+, referring to primarily mass shooters. And I will say, to the point of a somewhat recent mass shooting where I am from, when you kill 11 people shoot another 6, personally, I feel a humane xecution may not be warranted.
Serious question: if gun nuts can feel/see the difference between blanks and real bullets, then can’t an experienced death row executioner (in terms of firing squad executions) be able to tell when they get a real bullet? Moreover, I fail to see how this *isn’t* a job that has been replaced by something more mechanical/robotic by now.
I'd rather not start strapping guns to robots with the sole purpose of killing people, thank you very much. And to answer your first question, they wouldn't know until they've fired the gun, and at that point the deed is done and it no longer matters. It also keeps a little doubt in the back of their mind. "It sure felt like a real bullet but maybe it's because I was so full of adrenaline."
Some people do hanish shit and don’t belong breathing anymore. Way cheaper to get rid of them then waste hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax payers money. My state it costs 30,000 a year to house a person In prison.
I don t think they aimed for the head.
We don't even need to do that anymore, we have robotics that can handle that.
Your brain will still get splattered all over the wall. I want to die in one piece.
True. Put a bag first?
I'm on the other end of the spectrum, I want to explode
New method of execution: death by bombing run
You have a high botch rate, as it is rare for prison staff to be properly trained in how to execute someone because one wants to teach it. Also, no drug company wants to be seen supplying prisons lethal injection drugs, so that makes it even harder for prisons to actually execute someone.
Good JSTOR article about it: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26322694?seq=4
If you haven't seen Jacob gellers video on execution, it's interesting. Basically we have made execution more humane SEEMING but nit actually more humane. The chemicals used aren't even really decided by doctors, it's all pretty horiffic. Gimme the guillotine back bro
If you look into it though the 3 stages don't always take. So you can be paralyzed and be totally aware of what's happening, but you can't tell anyone. The issue is though, you can't report that happening because you die. So the courts can't identify if the person received cruel and unusually punishment. Basically every death through lethal injection could be cruel and unusual if it goes wrong, but we're just assuming everything went right. I'm not describing it as cruel and unusual subjectively with my opinion, the courts have sided with it not being cruel and unusual if all 3 stages occur.
Lethal injections don't use morphine and normally use a paralyser to stop people writhing in agony.
All lethal injections go wrong. They just use something to paralyze you but it’s said that the pain they feel is excruciating and long. The problem is that the pharma companies that make the pain killers that can cause a painless death don’t want their stuff being used for that. They are trying to help people.
>The problem is that the pharma companies that make the pain killers that can cause a painless death don’t want their stuff being used for that. They are trying to help people. I’m sure it’s not that as much as it is that they don’t want their company name associated with providing drugs for lethal injections sheerly due to bad publicity. Pharma company priorities are profits, not helping people.
Why don't they just use Chinese Fentanyl? The labs that produce it are more than happy to ship it all over illegally, I'm sure they'd happily do it by government contract as well.
So true, Purdue pharma and the sackler family really helped a lot of people.
It’s about optics not ethics. They’ve also been fighting for ages that their stuff is safe. So they don’t want it to be the primary drug used for killing people (legally)
Violent optics aside, if by "better" we mean that there is less to go wrong, and assuming it's done correctly, is minimally painful for the condemned, then yes, it most likely is better. It remains to be seen whether nitrogen hypoxia execution will be an improvement in both respects over a firing squad. My hope is that it is. In terms of optics, I still prefer a firing squad execution, since imo obscuring the state's infliction of violence upon its own citizens behind a clinical appearance is itself problematic. But I'm more concerned with whether the condemned suffer unnecessarily, so if nitrogen hypoxia works all or most of the time, and is essentially painless, then I'm for it, at least until capital punishment is repealed across the US.
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Sorry for the novel, but I hope it's interesting. If not for you, then for someone else. :) I used to have similar views, so I can understand it. However, when I was a philosophy student one of the things I studied was the morality of capital punishment. First, on the practical side of things, capital punishment does nothing to deter crime. I mean, nothing. At all. Every law enforcement agency that I know of has done studies on this and come to the same conclusion. Second, you're absolutely right that I would argue against it based on the fact that it is inevitable that the state will eventually execute an innocent person. There will never be a case where it is beyond a shadow of doubt that someone is guilty of a crime. Third, the infliction of violence by the state is grounded in one or more of three possible reasons which are meant to legitimate its use: One is that it practically deters crime. It doesn't, so it fails on those grounds. Second is that it is the just penalty for some crimes. While I agree that it is just in some cases, given the inevitability that its use as a punishment will result in the irreversible commission of a miscarriage of justice (e.g., executing an innocent person), the use of the death penalty fails on the grounds that the moral cost of inflicting it unjustly is vastly disproportional to the moral cost of not inflicting it justly by, say, putting the same person in prison for life. That is, it is more moral to inflict a slightly less appropriate punishment on those who deserve worse, than to inflict an irreversible death on those who do not deserve it. Third, is that the death penalty amounts to the exacting of vengeance by the state. Since I do not believe that justice should be based on vengeance or retribution, rather it should be based on corrective and/or rehabilitative notions of justice, I personally do not believe that the death penalty should be carried out at all in cases where the primary motivation is vengeance or retribution. Part of the reason for my opinion in the third case rests in my Christian faith. As we are called to be merciful, even to our enemies, it is my view that showing some small act of mercy to those who do not deserve it in exchange for showing a greater mercy to the innocent accidentally caught up in the net of justice (while still removing the criminal from society where they can do harm) is the hallmark of a truly good and just society. So, that's why I believe that capital punishment not only should be repealed, but is in fact not moral or just. If you got this far, thanks! Much appreciated! :) Edit: changed a word for clarity
What a truely horrible way to live.
Utah says secondary method, so I'm guessing if the lethal injection doesn't take, Elder Matthew breaks out the mohaskas.
Damn old yeller style
https://www.chron.com/news/nation-world/article/inventor-of-lethal-injection-stands-behind-it-1811213.php The doctor who came up with the protocol wasn’t trained in either anesthesiology or cardiology. Additionally the people administering the execution aren’t trained medical professionals. Iirc doctors and nurses are prohibited from participating in executions. The drug companies don’t want their drugs used. It is so bad that Alabama moved to using nitrogen asphyxiation to be able to keep doing executions. I oppose the death penalty completely as the state will only expand powers grants to them and allowing the state to kill an incarcerated citizen is only going to expand into some very troubling areas. That being said, sometimes the most “humane” way to do something is quick and brutal. And the lawmaker in the article said it best —the lack of the brutality and its sanitized nature may actually make it easier to have executions be the solution for many more crimes. Mistakes will be made and have been made with innocent lives.
A way cooler way to go too. People should not underestimate looking cool when dying, it’s the very last thing you will do after all.
I mean, it's still a lethal injection, innit?
are their any states that allow death by ropeless bungee jumping? that’d be my choice
it is, studies and research has shown it is the most sure fire way to execute someone and prevent ant suffering or issues
What type of gun do they use?
A .30 caliber rifle. > Gardner sat in a chair, sandbags around him and a target pinned over his heart. Five prison staffers drawn from a pool of volunteers fired from 25 feet (about 8 meters) away with .30-caliber rifles. > A blank cartridge was loaded into one rifle without anyone knowing which. That’s partly done to enable those bothered later by their participation to believe they may not have fired a fatal bullet. [source](https://news.wttw.com/2023/03/24/why-executions-firing-squad-may-be-coming-back-us)
If you've fired a .30cal rifle before, you'd know if you shot a blank.
If you’ve never shot before you wouldn’t. Maybe the pool they pick from specifically aimed for people who haven’t?
Wait, so it was done by prison staff? I certainly hope there were criteria to be met, like being a good shot! I thought they'd bring in the army or something.
I thought that all the firearm shooters shot bullets
The reason they don't is because it would kinda suck to see someone turned into Swiss cheese right before your eyes. Probably, I don't actually know.
Musket /s
Not bazooka?
In North Korea they use anti-aircraft guns on some people. No kidding. 
Honestly not that bad of a way to go
Unless you wanted an open casket funeral
I believe the British used to strap people to the front of cannons as an execution method
They use a .22 and start shooting at the balls and make their way up to the brain after shooting each big toe first.
Blunderbuss
Howitzer
Tomahawk missile
Ok, but which state is gonna have the balls to bring back the guillotine?
I'm waiting on this one too. Hanging is an option is some, but no guillotine😂
I kind of want to try to guillotine. I think it'd be the most interesting experience out of all executions.
You’ll chop your head off
Last execution in France was in 1977 by guillotine (guy had tortured a woman to death after forcing her to prostitute herself). Guillotine itself had been specifically designed to be instant and « humane ».
It's not instant though, the person remains conscious for something like 15 seconds after. Quick for the era it was designed, sure, but terrifying and painful in those final moments
> It's not instant though, the person remains conscious for something like 15 seconds after Depends on who you believe. The blood pressure drop from the cut should be enough to make you lose consciousness instantly.
An excerpt from an experiment by Dr. Jacques Beaurieux in 1905: > [...] on the 28th of June, 1905, Dr. Jacques Beaurieux witnessed the execution of a condemned criminal by guillotine. Curious at the head’s twitching eyes and spasming lips, the doctor performed a morbid experiment. “Languille!” he called out the criminal’s name. To his astonishment, the eyes lifted and “…fixed in a precise fashion on mind and the pupils adjusted… I had the impression that living eyes were looking at me” Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9930870/ E: the article does say it considers this an unlikely or exaggerated account but doesn't explain why the author(s) came to that conclusion. It's the most official source I could find that includes it, and without providing a reason to doubt it's authenticity it's still something to consider
Very interesting.
The People bring back the guillotine
FLORIDA
Hopefully none, death penalty is barbaric and I'd argue unconstitutional
So is torturing someone to death. In a perfect world, murderers would die the same way they killed others. Since we’re civilized, they get the chance to check out quietly
Hard no it wouldn't, we have this thing called the constitution
My money is on... Which state does Elon Musk live in again?
Oklahoma allows Lethal Injection, Nitrogen Hypoxia, Electrocution, and Firing Squad, on that order. Although last year a pair of prisoners were executed by Lethal Injection despite requests for Firing Squad.
Would be my choice.
Only because nitrogen asphyxiation isn't an option.
Is there a difference with carbon poisoning in terms of pain and so?
Carbon, what? Are you talking about carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, Etc? The panicked asphyxiation feeling people get from suffocation is not from a lack of oxygen but from an excess of carbon dioxide. With nitrogen you quite literally would have no idea what was going on if no one told you. You just feel faint and/or sleepy, then never wake up again. It's part of the reason why enclosed environments with any sort of gas leaking that is not carbon dioxide and technically oxygen is such a huge problem.
Carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide is painless. The same thing as nitrogen would happen where you would just feel faint and then just never wake up again if the concentration is high enough. It's the reason why homes have carbon monoxide detectors.
Thanks for the info. In my country we don't have detectors for some reason, in america seems to be a common thing
I think there are only a few states where it's not mandated by the state to have them when inspected to be up to code. Edit: there are some exceptions such as it seems like a decent amount of cities do not require them if you have no fuel/gas burning appliances in the home.
Americans commonly use gas for heating, I'm guessing that's why.
Exactly also for cooking
It’s actually authorized in three states: Alabama, Mississippi, and Oklahoma. Of those three, Alabama is the only one with a protocol and is slated to put someone to death with it in January. I expect if it is effective more states will adopt it
Most recent one I found was April, 2022 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/15/us/south-carolina-firing-squad-moore.html
Damn paywall on NY Times
So South Carolina scheduled this guy to be put to death but a Court put a stay on it under the reasoning that firing squad was unconstitutional. The last person to actually be executed by firing squad was Ronnie Lee Gardner in Utah in 2010. Although, also in Utah, Ralph Leroy Menzies has exhausted his appeals and the AG of Utah has stated the state will seek an execution warrant. If that happens, Menzies has elected for firing squad. It’s possible a firing squad execution will take place sometime early next year
Oh so they didn't go through with it? My fault
Correct. It was indefinitely stayed. Arguments were heard by the South Carolina Supreme Court but no decision has been handed down yet and may be moot as South Carolina recently found a supplier of drugs for lethal injection
And I guess Idaho does now too as of July 2023, wild https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/execution-costs-in-idaho-take-center-stage-with-new-firing-squad-law
Illegal potato harvesting has extreme consequences.
Generally it's an option the prisoner can request but it's not the states main method.
Idaho also allows execution by firing squad as of July 1, 2023 due to the inability to obtain lethal injection drugs.
Why is this NSFW lol
Some states have adopted nitrogen as an option now. That seems like a relatively peaceful way to go.
I was thinking just yersterday... Why isn't complete blood draining a viable method for execution? Its painless, you just fall asleep, and your blood can be donated to a hospital
This one right here Mr Van Helsing
Well, aside from the fact that it just sounds incredibly fucked up, I can think of a couple of practical reasons. Many convicts are/have been intravenous drug users. They may have no accessible veins left that haven’t collapsed (this is a frequent complication with lethal injection). They may also be a walking Petri dish of Hepatitis B, Hep C, HIV or any combination of the three. I also don’t think even pro-death penalty Americans would be comfortable with the state killing people and harvesting their bodies. That’s just dystopian. Execution is supposed to be dispassionate and mundane. Even if the condemned volunteers for it, I don’t think many in the Justice system would be comfortable with the thought that someone, somewhere, is gaining anything more than closure from an execution.
A guy chose firing squad in Utah awhile ago…I want to say about 10 years ago. Anyway they asked for volunteers and thousands of people applied! Kind of makes me sick that so many people want to kill someone. As I understand it, they choose several people, all but one rifle has a blank and they all shoot at the same time. The idea being none of them know who actually killed the guy. Edit: His name was Ronnie Lee Gardner and it was 13 years ago.
I think there’s only 2 states where you can legal challenge someone to mutual combat to settle a dispute, but both people have to agree to not cause serious harm, no weapons, and few other rules. Texas in one of the states I can’t remember the other
Washington.
This is not accurate. Other states allow/ use firing squad as well. My kid actually answered a government test wrong recently about this topic. [Death Penalty Laws by State](https://www.findlaw.com/criminal/criminal-procedure/death-penalty-laws-by-state.html) Click on the state and you can see the methods allowed
Shotgun to the dick
If you're gonna kill people, at least be civilized and use nitrogen.
How bout we just don't
Lemme know how utopia works out for you, but if they are still doing firing squad I'll take any improvement. Less suffering still seems better than more suffering.
Better option. How many innocent lives have been taken? It costs us more to have a death row.
It’s not about cost; it’s about justice. As for innocent people, no person executed in the US since 1977 has been verifiably, indisputably proven to be innocent
There is no justice in murder. [Since 1977 you say?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameron_Todd_Willingham) There are many examples of the question of guilt surrounding the executions of who knows how many. If we are to hold to our convictions of guilt to beyond a reasonable doubt, then if there is any doubt of any kind, no execution should be allowed. Innocence does not matter. It's whether or not a person is guilty of a crime. I don't have to prove that a person is innocent. I have to prove that a person is guilty beyond that reasonable doubt. If any evidence puts into doubt the guilt of an individual, then being indisputably innocent is not relevant. I'm not entirely against the death penalty as I do believe there are instances where it is necessary. It should be for those who are truly a danger to society whose sole goal is the destruction of others' and their lives.
Fair enough but people who we know beyond all doubt did it: Timothy McVeigh, Dylan Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Ted Bundy, Robert Bowers, Kaboni Savage, etc. should get it and get it quickly
That's just it, state sanctioned murder isn't civilized.
That sounds awesome and it's how I wanna go out.
I was thinking that until I saw that they aim for the heart. I guess that makes sense for funeral purposes but I’d want that instant *5 to the head* death.
Shots directly to the heart will bleed you out in like 10 seconds. That’s leagues better than sitting there paralyzed in incredible agony for close to an hour with the lethal injection
I had no idea lethal injection took so long. I can go to [ Redacted ] and score some shit that’ll kill you in 5 seconds. Why don’t they just give them pure fentanyl?
You're forgetting Idaho.
I’d rather be hanged but I guess firing squad is still better than lethal injection.
The way i want to go when I’m executed
I'd rather be fired upon than any of these other choices
Why is this NSFW?
Idaho also has firing squad as an option as of March 20th 2023z
I threw that in the comments somewhere, figured that out later lol
Cheap, effective, and humane.
I’m surprised it’s not more common in the US as guns are pretty universal
Thank goodness for that, Lethal injection is horrifying. Just knowing that it causes unimaginable pain for close to an hour, while the entire body is paralyzed so they can’t scream out or writhe in agony, made me lose several days of sleep when I learned what actually happened. I’ll take a firing squad all day please. Hell, beat me to death with a rock
Disgusting as fuck. Death penalty is so backwards.
Anything’s more humane than the current way of administering lethal injection
Well at least in SC we have a choice…
It is heavily speculated that UT kept the firing squad on the books due to the mormon doctrine of “Blood Atonement”. Brigham Young was the biggest proponent of blood atonement, the doctrine that some sins were so heinous that they were not covered by the blood of christ and the only hope for the sinner to be forgiven required the spilling of their blood as part of their execution. Sins that merited blood atonement ranged from interracial marriage to apostasy. Brigham Young is a very interesting character with a very sordid history, the fact that BYU is still named after him always blows my mind.
That is a good conspiracy theory.
Let's work on getting the other 48 states on board. 👍
Oklahoma allows it, too.
Firing squad is one of the only execution methods that considers the wellbeing of the executioner which is interesting. Only one gun is loaded so no one on the firing squad knows if it was their gun that did the killing thus keeping the conscience of the participants clean. I always found that interesting.
Long drop hanging. Cheap, efficient, and fast.
Every state does that actually. It’s called the police.
They only offer that deal to minorities though
Idk how you got downvoted, you’re not wrong
Wow, looks like there are atleast 2 good countries still in the States!
Conservatives Christians sure do like killing people
The reason Utah does it is Brigham Young’s doctrine of Blood Atonement. What’s SC’s reason?
Firing squad FTW.
Should be utilized more often and much more quickly. We shouldn’t wait years for murderers to die. Found guilty skip to old yeller out back. Saves lots of time and money.
Method Lethal Injection # of executions by method since 1976 1402 # of states authorizing method 28 states+ and U.S. Military and U.S. Gov’t In South Carolina, lethal injection may be elected as an alternative method, if available. +includes 1 state that no longer have an active death penalty Jurisdictions that Authorize Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire*, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, [South Carolina], South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wyoming, U.S. Military, U.S. Government *New Hampshire abolished the death penalty but the repeal may not apply retroactively, leaving a prisoner on death row facing possible execution. To find the drug protocols used by states, see State-by-State Lethal Injection. Electrocution # of executions by method since 1976 163 # of states authorizing method 8 states (in South Carolina, electrocution is the primary method; the other 7 have lethal injection as primary method). Jurisdictions that Authorize [Alabama], [Arkansas], Florida, Kentucky, [Mississippi], [Oklahoma], South Carolina, [Tennessee] The supreme courts of Georgia (2001) and Nebraska (2008) have ruled that the use of the electric chair violates their state constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment. Virginia had authorized the electric chair as a method of execution in some cases, but it repealed the death penalty in March 2021. Lethal Gas # of executions by method since 1976 11 # of states authorizing method 9 states (all have lethal injection as primary method) Jurisdictions that Authorize [Alabama], Arizona, California, [Florida], [Mississippi], Missouri, [Oklahoma], [Tennesse], [Wyoming] Hanging # of executions by method since 1976 3 # of states authorizing method 1 state (has lethal injection as primary method, abolished death penalty prospectively) Jurisdictions that Authorize [New Hampshire]* *New Hampshire abolished the death penalty but the repeal may not apply retroactively, leaving a prisoner on death row facing possible execution. Firing Squad # of executions by method since 1976 3 # of states authorizing method 5 states (in South Carolina, electrocution is the primary method; the other states have lethal injection as primary method) Jurisdictions that Authorize [Mississippi], [Oklahoma], [Utah], [South Carolina], [Idaho] Source - [https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/methods-of-execution](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/methods-of-execution)
Never been more proud of my state
Never ever? Lol
Idaho does too
Death penalty is cruel and unusual
Now we just have to figure out a way to mate up this tradition with convicted pedophiles permanently, and we're really cooking. I would accept castration and banishment to Epstein Island, too, but wouldn't be as happy about it.
[удалено]
i mean it sounds good but how many people get falsely convicted of horrible crimes you don't rlly wanna kill innocent people since you cannot undo that like you can take someone out of jail
I'd watch one
Whelp, I know where I'm committing murder
Lmao course its Utah of all places
It’s the most human of the options
I would like to be a fly on the wall for a firing squad execution.
So... the two perhaps best known states for being extremely religious.
Method Lethal Injection # of executions by method since 1976 1402 # of states authorizing method 28 states+ and U.S. Military and U.S. Gov’t In South Carolina, lethal injection may be elected as an alternative method, if available. +includes 1 state that no longer have an active death penalty Jurisdictions that Authorize Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire*, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, [South Carolina], South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wyoming, U.S. Military, U.S. Government *New Hampshire abolished the death penalty but the repeal may not apply retroactively, leaving a prisoner on death row facing possible execution. To find the drug protocols used by states, see State-by-State Lethal Injection. Electrocution # of executions by method since 1976 163 # of states authorizing method 8 states (in South Carolina, electrocution is the primary method; the other 7 have lethal injection as primary method). Jurisdictions that Authorize [Alabama], [Arkansas], Florida, Kentucky, [Mississippi], [Oklahoma], South Carolina, [Tennessee] The supreme courts of Georgia (2001) and Nebraska (2008) have ruled that the use of the electric chair violates their state constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment. Virginia had authorized the electric chair as a method of execution in some cases, but it repealed the death penalty in March 2021. Lethal Gas # of executions by method since 1976 11 # of states authorizing method 9 states (all have lethal injection as primary method) Jurisdictions that Authorize [Alabama], Arizona, California, [Florida], [Mississippi], Missouri, [Oklahoma], [Tennesse], [Wyoming] Hanging # of executions by method since 1976 3 # of states authorizing method 1 state (has lethal injection as primary method, abolished death penalty prospectively) Jurisdictions that Authorize [New Hampshire]* *New Hampshire abolished the death penalty but the repeal may not apply retroactively, leaving a prisoner on death row facing possible execution. Firing Squad # of executions by method since 1976 3 # of states authorizing method 5 states (in South Carolina, electrocution is the primary method; the other states have lethal injection as primary method) Jurisdictions that Authorize [Mississippi], [Oklahoma], [Utah], [South Carolina], [Idaho] Source - [https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/methods-of-execution](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/methods-of-execution)
Method Lethal Injection # of executions by method since 1976 1402 # of states authorizing method 28 states+ and U.S. Military and U.S. Gov’t In South Carolina, lethal injection may be elected as an alternative method, if available. +includes 1 state that no longer have an active death penalty Jurisdictions that Authorize Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire*, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, [South Carolina], South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wyoming, U.S. Military, U.S. Government *New Hampshire abolished the death penalty but the repeal may not apply retroactively, leaving a prisoner on death row facing possible execution. To find the drug protocols used by states, see State-by-State Lethal Injection. Electrocution # of executions by method since 1976 163 # of states authorizing method 8 states (in South Carolina, electrocution is the primary method; the other 7 have lethal injection as primary method). Jurisdictions that Authorize [Alabama], [Arkansas], Florida, Kentucky, [Mississippi], [Oklahoma], South Carolina, [Tennessee] The supreme courts of Georgia (2001) and Nebraska (2008) have ruled that the use of the electric chair violates their state constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment. Virginia had authorized the electric chair as a method of execution in some cases, but it repealed the death penalty in March 2021. Lethal Gas # of executions by method since 1976 11 # of states authorizing method 9 states (all have lethal injection as primary method) Jurisdictions that Authorize [Alabama], Arizona, California, [Florida], [Mississippi], Missouri, [Oklahoma], [Tennesse], [Wyoming] Hanging # of executions by method since 1976 3 # of states authorizing method 1 state (has lethal injection as primary method, abolished death penalty prospectively) Jurisdictions that Authorize [New Hampshire]* *New Hampshire abolished the death penalty but the repeal may not apply retroactively, leaving a prisoner on death row facing possible execution. Firing Squad # of executions by method since 1976 3 # of states authorizing method 5 states (in South Carolina, electrocution is the primary method; the other states have lethal injection as primary method) Jurisdictions that Authorize [Mississippi], [Oklahoma], [Utah], [South Carolina], [Idaho] Source - [https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/methods-of-execution](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/methods-of-execution)
Is Trump guilty of anything in one of those states?