Condemned Men Face Firing Squad

The only state that dispatches condemned inmates by firing squad is assembling gunmen for back-to-back executions next month. The Utah Corrections Department is recruiting law enforcement officers for two five-person firing squads, asking the police departments in the communities where the crimes were committed to nominate volunteers. The nation's last execution by firing squad was in 1996.

Exercising their right under Utah law, serial killer Roberto Arguelles and Troy Michael Kell, a white supremacist who stabbed a fellow inmate to death, have chosen the firing squad over lethal injection and are set to die at 12:01 a.m. on June 27 and 28, respectively. Utah's use of firing squads predates statehood in 1896 and is a remnant of the early Mormon belief that bloodshed is a required punishment for taking a life, said Richard Dieter, director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which says it is neutral about the death penalty but critical of its application.

"Certainly no other state has continued its use or allowed people to choose it. It's the one thing that stands out," Dieter said. "It's part of the history, so there's a reluctance to change."

CBS News Report

Well at least these guys are keeping with traditions. they may have been criminals but they are criminals with style, and balls none the less.

Given the military connotations of a firing squad -I'm not sure that I'd call it style; but if one must have legal executions: I suppose arguing about the method is fairly moot.
I guess it's economical - and I assume they have the "blank round" device so that the killers can at least try to convince themselves that they personally didn't do it.

I,m personaly against the death penalty, but it it needs to be carried out, it should be by firing squad. That way a least if the bullet strikes in the right place the suffering is absent.

I no that some would argue for a more torturing treatment, especially for some crimes and there criminals.

I feel that life imprisoment is more demeaning than being given the easy option of death.

The only drawback I'd have would be the blank. I'd want to ensure I had a real round.

Especially for the caliber of creatures there. Rape and torture of childeren? Forget the painless killing, my shot would be low. He's feel pain.

My plan: put all child molesters on a rock in the pacific with big man named wallace to be their special "friend." After a week they'll be begging for the gas chamber.

Note: Does not work for liberace

XAOS