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Bring back firing squads                                                                                    

Posted at: Feb/18/2014 : Posted by: mel

Related Category: Society, The Law,

It seems as though most things we do or experience go through circular cycles evolving from acceptance, to falling out of favor and back again. Behind all the other issues that comprise our constant barrage of media cycles is a renewed debate on capital crime executions. Obviously, the debate on executing or not executing has not significantly changed, but the means of execution in those states where it is still practiced is going through an evolution along with the associated noisy debate.

For years in America, the death sentence was carried out by hangings. Most hangings were conducted in a very public manner under the belief this might deter some in the crowd from committing similar crimes. During the last century, executions transitioned from hangings, to firing squads, gas chambers, and eventually to lethal-injections. All of these transitions were a response to changing social norms and perceived standards of decency.

The public hanging was intended to swiftly break the neck of the intended. Surprisingly, there was actually a great deal of knowledge required by a skilled hangman. If the drop was too much, the sentenced person might be decapitated to the horror of those who came to watch. For the slightly built, weights or a long drop would be required to ensure their neck actually snapped. Failing this, the hanged individual might slowly suffocate with the legs flailing about. By modern standards, a hangman would be considered a skill requiring both knowledge and experience. Because hangings still went wrong once in a while, most hangings were performed by a hangman who traveled in from different towns or villages.

The firing squad was used often in military circles, but seldom as part of a civil execution. Firing squads were also considered somewhat of a ceremonial execution and therefore periodically used for disgraced officials where the alternate process of hanging was too common to suffice. Firing squads also included the ethical pretense of absolving any one rifleman of sole execution responsibility. The firing squad of 3-7 rifleman or soldiers would be each presented with a loaded rifle. To remove any personal guilt or responsibility, one rifle would be loaded with a blank and each of the squad members could believe they were firing the blank cartridge. Firing squads are still considered a valid form of execution in many parts of the world.

As is typical of Americans, we love our technologies and are always seeking new ways to leverage the latest science. When electricity became common place, so did the rapid adoption of the electric chair. These devices sent large amounts of voltage through the convicted person’s body forcing muscular seizures in every major muscle including the heart. Electrical brain function would also be substantially disrupted leading to near instant death. Periodically, electrocutions were carried out poorly and rather than muscles convulsing, the intended would burn or “cook” often taking nearly a minute to accomplish. Electric chairs and their related electrical equipment were not portable so executions moved inside prisons to be witnessed by a select audience for public conformation.

Gas chambers made their debut as a form of execution in America in 1924. The intent of the gas chamber was to inject a lethal gas into a confined space leading to a rapid, but painless demise of the convicted individual. Only 11 states every adopted the gas chamber as a form of execution. The last gas chamber execution in America took place in 2010. Gas chambers were also notoriously used by Nazi Germany in their concentration camps for mass executions during the Holocaust and by North Korea at Camp-22 which by association has hurt their reputation. There were unfortunately many cases to the horror of those witnessing in which the person to be executed responded in unexpected way to the lethal gas. In 1983, Jimmy Lee Gray of Mississippi reacted badly to the gas and started banging his head against a steel pole. Many witnesses became violently ill and the room had to be cleared. It took 11 minutes for the convulsions and moans to stop. In 1992, a similar result unfolded in Arizona resulting in the state passing a law that all future executions would be performed by lethal injection.

Lethal-injection is the most common method of execution currently used in America for the roughly 1300 executions carried out since 1970 nationally. The lethal-injection process normally involves a fatal dose of 3 drugs with the intent of causing an immediate death. The three drugs are normally a barbiturate, paralytic and a potassium solution; each intended in successive order to put the person to sleep, stop their breathing and then stop their heart. The intent of lethal-injection in America has been to provide an execution method that was both, not ‘cruel and unusual’ to the intended and not horrifying to the witnesses. Opponents have argued that there can be ‘anesthesia awareness’ during the IV drip used to transport the drugs, though there have been no documented cases of violent reactions or convulsions that are commonly witnessed during other forms of execution. The European Union in 2011 banned the export of these same drugs to America stating that they did not want to be party to the American capital punishment process.

As suppliers and stores of the drugs needed for the conventional lethal-injection process have dried up, some states have experimented with a two drug process; unfortunately, the results have not been tolerable for the designated witnesses. Considering the size and scope of the pharmaceutical industry in America, it is amazing that an alternative is not available. Nevertheless, it is also entirely possible that the entire industry has collectively decided not to be a participant in the capital execution process.

With drug shortages looming, there has been a great deal of talking about firing squads coming back into vogue, but it is important to separate fact from noise. We are deluged on a continuous basis with real news, prognosticators, and those pundits who want to be perceived and knowing a great deal more than they really do. The facts are that 6 states as of this writing have a firing squad on their laws as an option to the person being executed. It is also true that the state of Utah had a murderer who elected to be executed by firing squad in 2010. In light of the current drug shortage challenge, 2 more states now have legislation for consideration to add the same firing squad option for executions. This is not some great social shift in favor of firing squads, it is merely law makers ensuring they have the optional means in place to carry out the capital sentences handed down by local judges and juries.

I personally think that America coddles its prison population too much. Protest over access to premium movie channels such as HBO and a host of other issues deemed “cruel and unusual” just don’t wash with me. We lock people up to punish as well as to protect society as a whole from those who have proven they are a threat to society. We sentence people to death when the heinous nature of their crimes means we do not view them as redeemable and do not want them to ever re-enter society.

As a parent of nearly two decades I have come to value life in significantly greater ways and with more importance than I used to. I also believe that executing murderers is not wrong and worrying about how painful it may be seem for them is ridiculous. For those who argue that I have never seen a violent or painful death, I will merely say that you are wrong, but keep the details private out of respect. The protections our society offers each of our citizens are written in the form of a contract. Like any good contract, once one party violates the terms of the contract, they are no longer protected…such is the nature of being a convicted murderer and I don’t really care what color their underwear is.

Now, with the use of DNA evidence to confirm guilt, the argument of mistakenly executing an innocent man is also off the table. We all want to eliminate doubt, and modern science now allows us to do just that.

Executing the proven evil among us is a necessary thing and the means need not be compassionate. Whether lethal-injection, hanging or a firing squad, wiping the monsters from the face of the earth is a good thing. The death penalty is the ultimate statement that society refuses to pamper the cold-blooded and heinous among us. Executing a murderer is not the same thing as “putting to sleep” the family dog after a long and valiant life. Were it up to me, we would give person on death row half a dozen drinks and the opportunity to slam a Yugo into one of those test track crash walls. Unfortunately, I suspect there are not enough Yugo’s left to carry this plan out.

Dennis Maguire was finally put to death after being found guilty of the torturous and sadistic murder of Joy Stewart in 1989. Joy was seven months pregnant when Maguire raped and sodomized her, slit her throat and stabbed her to death. Her body was then dumped in the woods. The coroner told the jury that her unborn baby (Carl would have been his name) possibly survived the initial assault and could have lived hours more in his dead mother’s womb. Joy’s husband, Kenny, unable to cope with the atrocity of what happened to his family, killed himself a week before Maguire’s trial. In early 2014 Ohio finally executed Maguire a quarter of a century after his being sentenced to die. Due to a lack of drugs, Ohio opted to execute Maguire with a two-drug cocktail instead of the usual three. The hand-wringing over Maguire taking 26 minutes to die; 11 minutes longer than the average lethal-injection execution offends me. According to observers, Maguire also gasped and snorted a few times during the process.

The odds are that Maguire had no idea what was happening to him, yet we know that Joy lived through every moment of the torture Maguire inflicted upon her. What he experienced was a gift, considering what he did to his victim, and the hopelessness and pain that compelled Joy’s husband to kill himself in the aftermath of Maguire’s sadism. The whole concept of the lethal-injection system, by its very nature, gives credence to the notion that executing someone is a bad thing and, therefore, needs to be made “nice.” There is also no doubt that executing Maguire will not bring Joy or Carl back, but the monsters among us and their cruelty needs to be excised.

Whether the firing squad makes a comeback or not is really moot. Protecting the most viscous among us from dreaming about anything other than puppies is misguided. Shoot them, hang them, give them a lethal cocktail, or incarcerate them for the rest of their lives, I don’t really care. When we choose to execute them, we should not be worried if they, as perpetrators of pain and suffering, experience a little of the same in their final minutes....such is the nature of justice.

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