Utah convict dies via firing squad
Posted by A. Red on Jun 18, 2010 in BLOG | 5 comments
Ronnie Lee Gardner was killed in Utah today via a firing squad. He was convicted of capital murder after a failed escaped attempt that left a courthouse shot up and attorney Michael Burdell dead. Garner was already in prison at the time for killing a bartender.
“Shortly before the shooting, Gardner was strapped into a chair and a team of five marksmen aimed their guns at a white target pinned to his chest….
…The executioners were all certified police officers who volunteered for the task and remain anonymous. They stood about 25 feet from Gardner, behind a wall cut with a gunport, and were armed with a matched set of .30-caliber Winchester rifles. One was loaded with a blank so no one knows who fired the fatal shot. Sandbags stacked behind Gardner’s chair kept the bullets from ricocheting around the cinderblock room.” (Read more)
Utah is the only state that still uses the firing squad method. Garner tried get his sentencing overturned to life in prison but to no avail.
I’m shocked this is still an option. I’m okay with the death penalty but I don’t think a firing squad is the way to go about it.
Two dozens of his family held a vigil for him outside while all of this was taking place. That must have been hard for them, but it was even worse for the families of the men he killed to deal with their lost. For every action there is a reaction, and a consequence for every bad deed committed. Simple as that.
Do you think it was barbaric?
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that ish is gangstarr…..blind justice if u ask me
I don’t think it was barbaric at all. When people do harm to others that’s what they get in return. I don’t think it was barbaric because that is how the state of Utah is structured. Now, if Utah wasn’t structured as such then I would definitely think it’s unfair and barbaric…
My stance is and will always be; you do the crime you do the time. Simple.
meh..the death penalty in itself is barbaric and archaic, its up to no man to choose wether another man lives or dies, how does that make us any different from the criminal that we are punishing for the same crime BUT we DO have the death penalty so go out the way you wanna go out..is lethal injection any better than firing squad? I think firing squad is unsettling to people because it is a BLATANT death and the criminal being put to death doesnt just peacefully drift into the afterlife and spare the conscience of those commiting the act and humanity in general…hell if were gonna have the death penalty we might as well let drowning be an option as well (ok a little extreme but you get my drift)
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I honestly think some of these people are better of dead. NOBODY is safe with a lot of them. Not walking the earth, not locked up in prison, anywhere.