Some states look at reviving firing squads amid shortage of execution drugs

JohnPhoenix
I don't see a problem with this.. in fact.. the scarier you make impending doom for a fellow that has a death sentence, the more likely it will help others stop and think before they commit murder.

Firing squad sure.. I'd even take slow dismemberment with no anesthesia using a rusty hack saw. And I'd televise it live on CNN.

A) Mental torture is inhumane.

B) How does an individual's personal, mental, psychological fear of impeding doom have any relevance as a deterrent to others (as an aside, have murders decreased b/c we execute murderers?)? It doesn't, because it's in the mind, which is individual & personal. Furthermore, see point A. and previous posts.

And even though see your opinion, this is about the least humane method/process.

As far as the CNN reference, see the Camus essay i linked to. He addresses and argues public executions well. And even though off topic of the point in the thread, I should add:

First of all, then, society does not believe its own words. If it did, we would be shown the heads. Executions would be given the same promotional campaign ordinarily reserved for government loans or a new brand of apéritif. Yet it is well known on the contrary, that in France executions no longer take place in public—they are perpetrated in prison yards before an audience limited to specialists.

We must either kill publicly, or admit we do not feel authorized to kill. If society justifies the death penalty as a necessary example, then it must justify itself by providing the publicity necessary to make an example. Society must display the executioner's hands on each occasion, and require the most squeamish citizens to look at them, as well as those who, directly or remotely, have supported the work of those hands from the first. Otherwise society confesses that it kills without consciousness of what it does or what it says; or that it kills yet knows, too, that far from intimidating belief, these disgusting ceremonies can only awaken a sense of criminality

Is it humane to parade an execution? Of course not. It's akin to sadism. If if the execution was conducted in the most humane method we could find, the prospect of it simply being public creates the inhumaneness i addressed in the OP.

We should let the victims or the victims families beat the convicted people to death with pieces of iron pipe and broadcast the execution on PPV TV and give the money raised to the wronged party as restitution.

Brutal...? Probably more humane than the convicted showed to their victim.

zeroBelief

Liquesence
Exactly. Death by hanging is not instantaneous much of the time, therefore suffering is likely involved, which is not humane (and the prospect of death and the leading to the gallows (or any place of execution) can be suffering as much).

Ugly, perhaps. Certainly messy, but yes far quicker.

When your execution date is known the countdown is filled with just as much anxiety as not knowing when it will be, and they will just come an get you (the latter which was also argued by Camus). Such as your Japan example.

Soooo.....we're basically in agreement, except for the semantics involved in knowing/not knowing when your incarceration will lead to execution.

Gotchya.

But, I did also suggest death by hypothermia. And I also agreed with the concept of death by guillotine. And, frankly, a gunshot at point blank range to the back of the head...nice, effective, no real pain, and immediate death.

So there you go!!!!

edit on 18-1-2014 by zeroBelief because: (no reason given)

More or less, we're in agreement in the most humane method, I suppose, but I wouldn't see hypothermia as humane. As far as knowing when one will be executed versus not i knowing, which is more humane, being conscious (awake) when your life is taken or not conscious (asleep). The latter.

But then one must ask, is it inhumane to not be able to die "peacefully?" Such as, being electrocuted (violent) versus lethal injection (more "peaceful")? One reason why states switched away from the chair. A don't think a guillotine or a gunshot is "peaceful."

Liquesence

Unfortunately, IMHO, consistently worrying about being "humane" over a basic act such as killing a human being, well, for lack of a better term, pussifies it in my humble opinion.

We cannot "wash away the blood". We must all deal with the "Out damned spot, OUT!" ghosts that even Shakespeare talked about.

But, this is not a casual choice we have made. It is not as flippant as "today, I'll wear turquoise!". No.

We are animals. Animals with the capacity to live a higher quality of life. The capacity to live together, within a society, one that deplores such things as the act of killing.

Yet, both as societies and individually, we are still quite well capable of committing both the personal and the impersonal crimes of killing.

Make no mistake about it. We are animals. We are also prone to, and guilty of (IMHO) the grandest of hubris.




OP, the article you posted, well, I cannot help but think that the author is caught up in this very hubris that I mention. The author of that article apparently is trying to suggest the idea that one can kill, and do so without needing to wash off the blood. Or to somehow have a clean soul. To not constantly see the imaginary spots of blood on our pristine and white clothes. The article's author is using the argument as shock value to suggest (IMHO) that if people were forced to see what we do when we kill, that we wouldn't avow execution within our societies.

Well, that wouldn't make the boogey man of homicide disappear.

Nor would it do away with the need to have a publicly known ultimate price one simply must pay for certain heinous crimes.

Mamatus
Sadly while it is not a bad idea as far as the treatment of criminals goes one needs to think of the effect it would have on the individuals who had to carry out the sentence. I for one could never have that job. Quick bullet to the head is efficient.

edit on 18-1-2014 by Mamatus because: (no reason given)

Oh, my friend....there is someone for EVERY job society creates in it's wicked little mind

Ones that will not cry from bearing witness to perform such a duty.

JohnPhoenix
I don't see a problem with this.. in fact.. the scarier you make impending doom for a fellow that has a death sentence, the more likely it will help others stop and think before they commit murder.

Firing squad sure.. I'd even take slow dismemberment with no anesthesia using a rusty hack saw. And I'd televise it live on CNN.

Much as someone else suggested, make it a pay per view event....and give the proceeds to the family of the victim, or to charities that deal with helping the survivors of such heinous acts.

A dear and lifelong friend of mine has a rather offbeat idea for handling "lifers", those who were spared execution and instead given life sentences.

Depending on the gravity of the crime...

Offer the individual the opportunity to actually serve humankind in a positive manner. All them the choice of life in jail, execution, or the chance to simply wipe the slate clean.

By serving a set period of time in which they will be subject to medical testing not ordinarily allowed to occur on human beings.


Legally protect the medical staff, the courts, and the process/drug manufacturers of any wrongdoing from the act and from indemnification , as acceptance into this trial is 100% voluntary by the guilty.


Oh, I can't wait to see the flames rise on this one

zeroBelief

Mamatus
Sadly while it is not a bad idea as far as the treatment of criminals goes one needs to think of the effect it would have on the individuals who had to carry out the sentence. I for one could never have that job. Quick bullet to the head is efficient.

edit on 18-1-2014 by Mamatus because: (no reason given)

Oh, my friend....there is someone for EVERY job society creates in it's wicked little mind

Ones that will not cry from bearing witness to perform such a duty.

And those are the first people we should shoot..........

Mamatus

zeroBelief

Mamatus
Sadly while it is not a bad idea as far as the treatment of criminals goes one needs to think of the effect it would have on the individuals who had to carry out the sentence. I for one could never have that job. Quick bullet to the head is efficient.

edit on 18-1-2014 by Mamatus because: (no reason given)

Oh, my friend....there is someone for EVERY job society creates in it's wicked little mind

Ones that will not cry from bearing witness to perform such a duty.

And those are the first people we should shoot..........

How myopic of you.

Perhaps by giving them such a job, we are allowing them to perform the very cruel acts that they might otherwise perform against the unknowing victims of the world.

Nothing is clean and neat. We all have dirt somewhere under our fingernails. And there is no such thing as a completely innocent society.

There is always crap, piss, and blood flowing under it's pristine city streets. Living without acknowledging this, again, leads to the sin of hubris on a capitol level.

reply to post by zeroBelief

Want really myopic? I would shoot every single person that gets caught committing an aggressive act of violence against another human. Tis' a crowded place and the rabid dogs need to be put down.

Mamatus
reply to post by zeroBelief

 

Want really myopic? I would shoot every single person that gets caught committing an aggressive act of violence against another human. Tis' a crowded place and the rabid dogs need to be put down.

edit on 18-1-2014 by Mamatus because: Gwammer and speeeeling

Kind of sounds like you fall into that "kill on sight" category you earlier mentioned. Because what you just said, well, sounds like you are somewhat disturbed. Some sort of messiah complex, maybe? Or simply a desire to kill out of a sense of social "superiority" ?

Or, are you just spouting off?

If you truly feel so angered over the treatment of humans like this....why not go out with a gun and "shoot every single person committing an aggressive act of violence against X"....where X could be....your average herd or farm animal we have put into a farm factory situation for our own food production? Or, the BP oil executives who caused so much wanton damage and harm? Or go after those that harm animals, like that guy in LA yesterday who was dragging a bloody puppy on a leash down the street because it refused to walk the direction he he wanted it to. Surely, we have use for a person with your anger.


But,

You're really quite funny......

You could take your act on the road, you know that?

reply to post by Liquesence


Forced Drowning would be cheaper for most states . Everyone is at least near a body of Water .........

Panic2k11
reply to post by shaneslaughta

 

I almost wish that you get wrongly convicted or the state attempts to politically silence you... in any case if you are in a State that has death penalty you already are paying due to social effects of having a higher disregard for human life and opting to satisfy basic human nature. To have criminals you first need a society.

Is it that i have a disregard for human life? Or that i regard human life so highly that one that takes a life without just cause deserves at least the same?

We are all here for a short time period. Why should someone have to suffer an undeserved fate?

I believe firing squads are there so the shooters can't tell who actually killed the person.We really don't need squads any more a guy with a suppressed .22 would be fine. There are MULTITUDES of sociopaths who can do that,which is better than electing them.

reply to post by zeroBelief

The reason I do not carry a gun? Were I to see that guy dragging the puppy down the street it would bother me not one bit to shoot him in the head. The only thing that keeps me from doing so is that in all likelihood I would end up being locked in a cage with the very people I despise. I would however have drug him out of the car and beaten him quite badly.

On a side note, I have nearly killed two gang members in two separate incidents. One of which is still in a vegetative state. Lucky for me the cops that showed up don't like gangsters either. Rabid dogs are just that, rabid.

Heres a good way.

Put them in a empty room with a razor blade and justien bieber playing over and over on a looping sound track. No need for executioners that way.

reply to post by crazyewok

Would they have to play it over and over? Just once would work for me.

Mamatus
reply to post by crazyewok

 

Would they have to play it over and over? Just once would work for me.

Good point just a few lines from baby boy will do it. It would be quick just not exactly humane.

reply to post by crazyewok

It could be worse imagine if Beib and Lady GaGa did a duet?

Mamatus
reply to post by crazyewok

 

It could be worse imagine if Beib and Lady GaGa did a duet?

Surely that would break some international law on toture?