Utah death row inmate says firing squad is unconstitutional

[webfact]

Utah death row inmate says firing squad is unconstitutional
LINDSAY WHITEHURST, Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah death row inmate appealing his sentence of death by firing squad says the execution method is cruel and unusual punishment. Utah recently approved the use of a firing squad as a backup if lethal injection drugs are not available.

Ron Lafferty argued in court documents that the firing squad will cause a lingering, unnecessarily painful death.

Lafferty, 74, initially chose to die by firing squad when he was sentenced 30 years ago and such a choice was available. His lawyers now argue that he wasn't legally competent to do so.

The case could test whether the firing squad is constitutional, said Kent Hart with the Utah Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

"It's a gruesome death," Hart said Tuesday.

Utah is the only state that allows executions by firing squad if lethal injection drugs aren't available. Utah lawmakers said the approval was a practical matter of choosing a backup plan to the drugs that have come under increasing scrutiny.

Opponents, however, say firing squads are barbaric.

Lafferty is the longest-serving death row inmate in Utah and one of the inmates who is closest to a possible execution date. He was convicted in the 1984 deaths of his sister-in-law, Brenda Lafferty, and her baby daughter. He claimed the killings were directed by God because of the woman's resistance to his beliefs in polygamy.

His opposition to a firing squad was voiced Friday in a federal court motion asking a judge to put his case on hold so he could pursue complaints about evidence handling and testimony. His lawyers also argued that lethal injection is unconstitutional.

No deadline was set for U.S. District Judge Dee Benson to rule on the motion. The state currently has no lethal injection drugs on hand.

Tom Brunker, the state attorney who oversees capital cases, has said he expects the constitutionality of the method to be tested the first time it comes up, though that's likely years away.

Under the Utah law signed in March, inmates would be executed by firing squad if the state is unable to get lethal injection drugs a month in advance.

Utah lawmakers had stopped offering inmates the choice of firing squad in 2004, saying the method attracted intense media interest and took away attention from victims.

Utah is the only state in the past 40 years to carry out such a death sentence, with three executions by firing squad since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

The last was in 2010, when Ronnie Lee Gardner was put to death by five police officers with .30-caliber rifles. Gardner killed a bartender and later shot a lawyer to death and wounded a bailiff during a 1985 courthouse escape attempt.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-07-15

[nkped]

I don't favor the death penalty, but there are reasonably serious people who have recently argued that the firing squad is the most humane method of dispatching the condemned. Destroy the heart and you are gone in short order. It's pretty gruesome for everybody else but they're not the ones with standing to bring an 8th Amendment claim.

[HeijoshinCool]

So what's wrong with going out with a bang?

[Somtamnication]

Well, murder is also unconstitutional. Just sayin'.

[Scott]

A troll post has been removed. Please stick to the topic.

[maanoi]

30 years of court battles to try and kill this prick. I'd hate to guess how much he has cost the state.

They say it costs more to execute someone vs life in prison.

I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of dying, let him rot in jail and save some money.

[vogie]

'Lafferty, 74, initially chose to die by firing squad'

Be carefull what you wish for, one day it may come true, hopefully.

[Seastallion]

Cruel and unusual would be some bricks around his ankles and dumped into the ocean, but a bullet to the brain is neither cruel nor unusual form of death.

A firing squad of 5 policemen. Sounds a bit light to me, especially if they do the old "one random blank, so that nobody is absolutely certain that any particular executioner fired a killing shot" method is used. Surely 12 shooters would be more of a guarantee that death is instant.

[Kerryd]

He's a religious looney, but doesn't want to meet his maker ? What has he got to worry about ? All he had to do was beg his imaginary friend for forgiveness (once) and he's sin free and ready for heaven (unlike his victims who may have died with un-confessed sins thus relegating them straight to hell).

Unfortunately, life in prison or a death sentence seem to be about the same thing anyways. 30 years since he was convicted and he's still waiting to be executed ? That is a joke. A pathetic joke. The main difference is, had they of given him life sentences (even if they were consecutive instead of concurrent) he would have probably been out on parole by now.

Strap him to the chair, look him straight in the eye and ask him about the constitutional rights of his victims that he didn't give a d@mn about when he murdered them. Then pull the trigger.

[NeverSure]

Cruel and unusual would be some bricks around his ankles and dumped into the ocean, but a bullet to the brain is neither cruel nor unusual form of death.

A firing squad of 5 policemen. Sounds a bit light to me, especially if they do the old "one random blank, so that nobody is absolutely certain that any particular executioner fired a killing shot" method is used. Surely 12 shooters would be more of a guarantee that death is instant.

I can tell if it's a blank or a bullet and I suspect those others can too. "For every action there's an opposite and equal reaction" in this case meaning the acceleration of the lead bullet down the barrel causes the gun to kick backward. Hard. The heavier the bullet vs the weight of the gun, the harder the kick. I always thought one gun had a blank for plausible deniability for the benefit of the shooters - no one knows who has a blank, or so they can say.

Not at you, but they shoot these perps in the heart and not the head and it isn't instant death. Maybe they don't want to mess up the guy's pretty face by removing his forehead.

I've seen and participated in a ton of beef steer killings to prepare for butcher and it's a head shot between the eyes. They don't know anything hit them. This is to avoid having them pump out a bunch of adrenaline which could taint the meat. If they are going to shoot someone that's as close to humane as it could get, I guess.

Cheers

[Seastallion]

Cruel and unusual would be some bricks around his ankles and dumped into the ocean, but a bullet to the brain is neither cruel nor unusual form of death.

A firing squad of 5 policemen. Sounds a bit light to me, especially if they do the old "one random blank, so that nobody is absolutely certain that any particular executioner fired a killing shot" method is used. Surely 12 shooters would be more of a guarantee that death is instant.

I can tell if it's a blank or a bullet and I suspect those others can too. "For every action there's an opposite and equal reaction" in this case meaning the acceleration of the lead bullet down the barrel causes the gun to kick backward. Hard. The heavier the bullet vs the weight of the gun, the harder the kick. I always thought one gun had a blank for plausible deniability for the benefit of the shooters - no one knows who has a blank, or so they can say.

Not at you, but they shoot these perps in the heart and not the head and it isn't instant death. Maybe they don't want to mess up the guy's pretty face by removing his forehead.

I've seen and participated in a ton of beef steer killings to prepare for butcher and it's a head shot between the eyes. They don't know anything hit them. This is to avoid having them pump out a bunch of adrenaline which could taint the meat. If they are going to shoot someone that's as close to humane as it could get, I guess.

Cheers

Yeah, I'm sure the shooters have a good idea, but nobody (except the one with the blank!) can point a finger with certainty at any one of them. I agree...I too have shot many a beef beast...draw that imaginary cross between the base of the horn and the opposite side eye. Bang, Dead.

I have also shot wild boar through the heart and had to track them for sometimes up to 100 metres before they fall.

If I had to choose, for myself or my family member, a messed up face or a slightly slower death, I think I'd choose the messed up face. It's amazing what an undertaker can do with cosmetics.

[Halion]

I am sorry but this does not make much sense to me. Here we have a convicted killer of a woman and a child and was sentenced over 30 years ago. He is now challenging the methodology of execution, however, his victims did not have the same opportunity.

Where is the justification in maintaining the welfare of this individual for three decades on tax payers money. If you have the death penalty then use the bloody thing and if you do not have the courage to do so then why have it in the first place.

[Baerboxer]

Cruel and unusual would be some bricks around his ankles and dumped into the ocean, but a bullet to the brain is neither cruel nor unusual form of death.

A firing squad of 5 policemen. Sounds a bit light to me, especially if they do the old "one random blank, so that nobody is absolutely certain that any particular executioner fired a killing shot" method is used. Surely 12 shooters would be more of a guarantee that death is instant.

I can tell if it's a blank or a bullet and I suspect those others can too. "For every action there's an opposite and equal reaction" in this case meaning the acceleration of the lead bullet down the barrel causes the gun to kick backward. Hard. The heavier the bullet vs the weight of the gun, the harder the kick. I always thought one gun had a blank for plausible deniability for the benefit of the shooters - no one knows who has a blank, or so they can say.

Not at you, but they shoot these perps in the heart and not the head and it isn't instant death. Maybe they don't want to mess up the guy's pretty face by removing his forehead.

I've seen and participated in a ton of beef steer killings to prepare for butcher and it's a head shot between the eyes. They don't know anything hit them. This is to avoid having them pump out a bunch of adrenaline which could taint the meat. If they are going to shoot someone that's as close to humane as it could get, I guess.

Cheers

From what I read, the Thai method was one shooter. The rifle placed in a fixed holder and sited onto the target i.e. the prisoner's heart. The executioner then fired a burst of several shots into the heart in very quick succession.

I don't know, but wouldn't this be a very quick way? Wouldn't that impact kill from shock almost at once?

The Chinese use a single shot to the base of the skull. Seems to work for them.

[rethaier]

All methods of killing are barbaric in some manner so what does it matter how it is done. Shoot the head instead of the heart if it is faster.

[Tchooptip]

Cruel and unusual would be some bricks around his ankles and dumped into the ocean, but a bullet to the brain is neither cruel nor unusual form of death.

A firing squad of 5 policemen. Sounds a bit light to me, especially if they do the old "one random blank, so that nobody is absolutely certain that any particular executioner fired a killing shot" method is used. Surely 12 shooters would be more of a guarantee that death is instant.

I can tell if it's a blank or a bullet and I suspect those others can too. "For every action there's an opposite and equal reaction" in this case meaning the acceleration of the lead bullet down the barrel causes the gun to kick backward. Hard. The heavier the bullet vs the weight of the gun, the harder the kick. I always thought one gun had a blank for plausible deniability for the benefit of the shooters - no one knows who has a blank, or so they can say.

Not at you, but they shoot these perps in the heart and not the head and it isn't instant death. Maybe they don't want to mess up the guy's pretty face by removing his forehead.

I've seen and participated in a ton of beef steer killings to prepare for butcher and it's a head shot between the eyes. They don't know anything hit them. This is to avoid having them pump out a bunch of adrenaline which could taint the meat. If they are going to shoot someone that's as close to humane as it could get, I guess.

Cheers

If they are going to shoot someone that's as close to humane as it could get, I guess.

Killing could hardly be "as close to humane as it could be" maybe as close as justice as it could be...but forgive me for this little nitpicking.

[gyrosman]

One less animal on the planet sucking tax dollars, a bullet is 30 baht cheaper than high tech drugs. For all the bleeding hearts, if it happen to your family you would have another opinion.

[Benmart]

Those that choose to take a life, should rest assured that theirs will be forfeit as well.

[captspectre]

I don't favor the death penalty, but there are reasonably serious people who have recently argued that the firing squad is the most humane method of dispatching the condemned. Destroy the heart and you are gone in short order. It's pretty gruesome for everybody else but they're not the ones with standing to bring an 8th Amendment claim.

what about the bartender and lawyer? i bet that they were not shot with the same prescision that he will get on his sorry ass! shoot him and get on with it!

[ALLSEEINGEYE]

Hey, it's constitutionally good enough for over 30,000 Americans each year (that die because of gun violence). It should be good enough for him too.

[wellred]

He should be fed to a pack of hungry dogs, or something else to ensure a slow death.