For those that believe in the death penalty, is the firing squad a humane way to execute people?

Question

Seriously.

Lethal injections are not humane. They can lead to slow and painful deaths.

The guillotine was invented to make a humane way to kill people. Trouble is, that sometimes, the blade wasn't sharpened enough, and wouldn't cut the head completely off, leading to pain, or if it cut the head off, it led to "living heads".

But what about the firing squad?

You're lined up against a wall, and shot. Dead, just like that. I think this should be done with a 20mm autocannon to ensure swift death.

Of course, I myself do not believe in the death penalty. Some 14% of those executed may be innocent in the US.

Your thoughts?

Answer 1

We should explore more ways in witch to positively convict someone so that it is a certainty that we have the right person when we execute someone. If there is certainty then I'm not concerned about the humanity of the execution, just as long as it is swift. A firing squad does the job that is intended, kill the person convicted of a heinous crime quickly.

Answer 2

How can the legal system categorize lethal injection as not humane? When was the last time someone had surgery and woke up mad at the doctors for all the pain they experienced?

I am not saying that it can't happen, just that it is not the expected result. To perform a humane execution should require a procedure and process executed in a manner to minimize the possibility of pain and suffering, not only if it can guarantee NO pain and suffering.

In that regards, even though I am for the death penalty, I don't think that the firing squad is necessarily the best method. While I don't have first-hand experience at being shot 6 or 7 times in the chest, I can certainly imagine that it would be possible for the person to be injured and then slowly slip into unconsciousness before dying. That would seem inhumane to me.

Think about your statement about the "living head" scene from the guillotine method. If that method was eliminated because the person may still retain consciousness after beheading, then how could a person not potentially retain consciousness after a firing squad? Proper sedation should provide a reasonably expected possibility that the person will not suffer unnecessarily.

Answer 3

People have been known to survive a firing squad. I was shot by a three man firing squad firing semi and automatic weapons five times, then seconds later three more rounds from an automatic rifle ( across the chest point blank 9mm ) then hours later by a guy with a rifle on semi-auto selector twice ( neck at point blank and when that didn't "do it" once more to the head point blank with a .226 russian ). Being part of Drug Interdiction is not safe either kids, and no matter how much flower power the drug dealer purports to have he's really relying on AK, most of the time. Heck a significant amount of time when the 55% of the USA that buys buys dope, they are directly or indirectly supporting Al Qa`ida itself. And then they go buy bullets to shoot automatic rifles into Marines. And yet, it's a good bet your not to "sick" to go get some more POT. I wish the guys a long prison stay that shot my brother 20 + times AND myself THAT DAY. But you gotta know, they deserve far worse. Do you know what it's like to lie 6 hours with 8 bullet wounds then as you lie paralyzed to be shot again and again? Your right, what makes me sick is a firing squad is too darn good for those sick sons of ... After a little girl got me into a boat and down the river she had to swamp it several times to keep the terrorists from finding us. We were 6 more hours plus until I got to hospital. I was 1/3 river water by volume. That is premeditated crime, people. And that type of criminal is in office now.

Answer 4

Seems only those opposed concern themselves with "humane" death of the convicted. Personally, I waffle on the whole thing. I don't like the death penalty, but I REALLY hate having to pay for the lawyers, health care, and housing of those who could care less about me and my civil rights. At that point, I find the death penalty a viable and almost attractive option. And to that end, I really could care less about how slow and painful the death of one who took a life wantonly. Let their death be greatly publicized and let it be as torturous as was their victim's. There are far more rightly convicted than wrongly convicted -- to the point that it's obsurd to bother mentioning. As much as I don't like the theocratic governments of the middle east, I have to say that their crime rate is significantly less than ours -- if you get caught stealing in the UAE, they remove the offending hand -- the policeman standing outside the Gold Souk, stands on the chopping block. Executions are public. Strikes me that these are a far greater deterent than ours.

Answer 5

The death penalty is rarely used. Only in the case of felony murder. Now with DNA it's even more unlikely for an innocent person to be executed. This is a necessary punishment that must be employed.

Answer 6

I like that option better than most. By the way, is that 14% from a legitimate source? Or an opinion from anti death penalty groups? I don 't believe that to be realistic.

Answer 7

I don't think the death penalty was ever meant to be humane and that's why I'm for death by claw hammer. Better yet, death by victim's family and friends wielding claw hammers? How about baseball bats too?
It always seems that when this discussion comes up everyone forgets the victims. What about their pain and suffering?

Answer 8

As time goes by and now we have ways of determing dna evidence, these people wrongly on death row will fade away.
But many have been there for many many years and were put there before science had so many improvements.

I really do not see your lethal injection point as if you know the process that doesnt make sense.

However someone who did something so aggregious, so bad as to be sentenced to death, I really am not so concerned about if its painless.

Answer 9

If you don't believe in the death penalty, then why the hell are you asking this question? It appears you have a morbid fascination with the subject judging by the research you claim to have done.

Answer 10

i don't care how they do it, as long as they do it instead of leaving death row prisoners on death row for years so the public can support them. i'm all for the death penalty, i just wish they would just put them to death as soon as they are sentenced. when someone is sentenced to death it's because they have committed some heinous crime--i could care less whether their death is humane or not.