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**markkisil** · 06-11-2010, 01:47 AM

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2010/06/08/...tion-since-96/

Utah Gearing Up For Its First Firing-Squad Execution Since ‘96

By Ashby Jones

Back in April, we blogged about Ronnie Gardner, a death row inmate in Utah.

As we wrote, Gardner (pictured) isn’t just any old death-row inmate. Gardner has asked to be executed by firing squad. Utah is only one of two remaining states that allow executions by firing squad (Oklahoma also allows them, albeit under limited circumstances).

The AP on Tuesday updated the situation, which hasn’t changed all that much since late April, when a state judge signed Gardner’s execution warrant. Barring a last-minute reprieve, Gardner will be strapped into a chair, hooded, brandished with a small white target, and shot to death on June 18.

Like most other states, Utah lawmakers made lethal injection the default method of execution in 2004, but inmates condemned before then can still choose the firing squad.

That’s what Gardner did in April, politely telling a judge, “I would like the firing squad, please.” Neither he nor his attorneys have said why.

What to make of this? Critics of the method aren’t too happy. “The firing squad is archaic, it’s violent, and it simply expands on the violence that we already experience from guns as a society,” Bishop John C. Wester, of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City, said during an April protest. The diocese is part of a new coalition pushing for alternatives to capital punishment in Utah.

06-11-2010, 01:47 AM	#2
markkisil Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 461 Senior Member	http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2010/06/08/...tion-since-96/ Utah Gearing Up For Its First Firing-Squad Execution Since ‘96 By Ashby Jones Back in April, we blogged about Ronnie Gardner, a death row inmate in Utah. As we wrote, Gardner (pictured) isn’t just any old death-row inmate. Gardner has asked to be executed by firing squad. Utah is only one of two remaining states that allow executions by firing squad (Oklahoma also allows them, albeit under limited circumstances). The AP on Tuesday updated the situation, which hasn’t changed all that much since late April, when a state judge signed Gardner’s execution warrant. Barring a last-minute reprieve, Gardner will be strapped into a chair, hooded, brandished with a small white target, and shot to death on June 18. Like most other states, Utah lawmakers made lethal injection the default method of execution in 2004, but inmates condemned before then can still choose the firing squad. That’s what Gardner did in April, politely telling a judge, “I would like the firing squad, please.” Neither he nor his attorneys have said why. What to make of this? Critics of the method aren’t too happy. “The firing squad is archaic, it’s violent, and it simply expands on the violence that we already experience from guns as a society,” Bishop John C. Wester, of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City, said during an April protest. The diocese is part of a new coalition pushing for alternatives to capital punishment in Utah.
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