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Humanities Section => Political/Government General Discussion => Topic started by: SGOS on May 07, 2021, 01:28:19 PM

Title: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: SGOS on May 07, 2021, 01:28:19 PM
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/07/us/firing-squad-south-carolina.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

QuoteFrustrated by the lack of drugs available to carry out lethal injections in their state, South Carolina lawmakers are on the cusp of a controversial solution: forcing death row inmates to face the electric chair or firing squad when lethal injection is not possible.

A bill proposing that change, approved by the State House this week, appears almost certain to become law in the next few days, and is being lauded by Republicans, including Gov. Henry McMaster, who have been vexed by pharmaceutical companies’ refusal to sell states the drugs needed to carry out lethal injections. The lack of drugs, they say, is a key reason South Carolina has not executed anyone in 10 years.

Opponents are appalled by the bill, which would make South Carolina the fourth state â€" along with Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah â€" in which death by firing squad is an option for the condemned.

“Why would South Carolina move toward the firing squad when they also do that in North Korea?” State Representative Justin Bamberg, a Democrat, said in an interview on Thursday.
The Electric Chair turned out not to be the end all be all of execution technology.  I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did.  Not having experienced either, I don't think the firing squad would be any worse. 

Lethal injection sounds more humane but it can be too easily botched, which is why the drug companies won't sell South Carolina the stuff.  I don't know who came up with the injection technology.  The executioner pushes the first button, then the second, and then the third, a fourth???  Each injecting a different chemical. 

I don't want to compare apples and oranges, but when I put my dog down, the vet gave him one shot of barbiturate. I held my dogs head, and a second later he collapsed letting out one final breath of air, and he was dead.

But I guess for humans, it requires a lot of fal-der-rahl, walking the guy down the hall, reading the Bible to him, taking into a special room, lashing him down to the gurney, opening the curtains so everyone can watch, some guy with the correct time tells them when to start pushing the buttons dispensing the chemicals, which had been switched out of the correct order by some prison guard that had a personal grudge against the guilty.

They've got a doctor, the warden, a few guards, the button pusher, and a priest, everyone wanting a piece of the action.

Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Shiranu on May 07, 2021, 02:41:18 PM
Regression is the way of the future.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Hydra009 on May 07, 2021, 05:51:31 PM
QuoteRepublicans, including Gov. Henry McMaster, who have been vexed by pharmaceutical companies’ refusal to sell states the drugs needed to carry out lethal injections.
Gee, I wonder why pharmaceutical companies would not want to be associated with death?  Hell of a brand image.  And in some cases, it's actual murder.  People sitting on death row for years and then getting exonerated by DNA evidence or some other reason.  What company would want to be associated with that?!
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: SGOS on May 07, 2021, 07:20:12 PM
Yeah, I thought about that.  Drug companies are more likely to react to social pressure than the needs of execution chambers, and I doubt that they sold enough of those drugs to make that much profit, anyway.  It's kind of a no brainer in the board room.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: aitm on May 07, 2021, 07:37:47 PM
Yeah, the stupid of all this is...well...stupid. There are probably a half dozen “pills” that can be dissolved into a meal...un-noticeable...and they wake up dead. For fucks sake..this is easy. Fuck man...put me in charge....which is to say..I am not killing people unless you have 100% absolute proof...but then...sayonara.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: SGOS on May 07, 2021, 09:14:32 PM
Didn't the government give some of its most important spies cyanide capsules to avoid capture, or did I get that out of a James Bond movie?
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Shiranu on May 07, 2021, 09:23:27 PM
Quote from: SGOS on May 07, 2021, 09:14:32 PM
Didn't the government give some of its most important spies cyanide capsules to avoid capture, or did I get that out of a James Bond movie?

It's pretty unpleasant (though I suppose most death is), but it is an extremely effective; once it starts, it's pretty much unstoppable. I think it was more an efficiency thing than a humane thing.

Suffocation by inert gas or firing squad would be the way to go for me, if I had to choose; with the gas you feel euphoric and giddy until you pass out from oxygen loss (no C02 build up, so you don't get that panic like if you were suffocating) and firing squad just so that the person murdering me has to live with that on their conscious.

Could also come up with some final words to try and mind fuck with them as well.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: arch warmonger on May 08, 2021, 06:21:25 AM
Man you guys write as if you're basically certain you'll die by execution. Makes me wonder what you've done in the past.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Gawdzilla Sama on May 08, 2021, 08:05:58 AM
Quote from: arch warmonger on May 08, 2021, 06:21:25 AM
Man you guys write as if you're basically certain you'll die by execution. Makes me wonder what you've done in the past.
Forum rules won't let me post that information.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Shiranu on May 08, 2021, 09:37:40 AM
Quote from: arch warmonger on May 08, 2021, 06:21:25 AM
Man you guys write as if you're basically certain you'll die by execution. Makes me wonder what you've done in the past.

On the contrary, I'm 99.99% sure I never will; it's called not being a dick and being concerned about others.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Feral Atheist on May 08, 2021, 05:51:35 PM
What is stopping the use of opioids for lethal drug executions?  It works, every community across the country has multiple overdose deaths every month.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Hydra009 on May 08, 2021, 07:06:06 PM
Quote from: Feral Atheist on May 08, 2021, 05:51:35 PMWhat is stopping the use of opioids for lethal drug executions?  It works, every community across the country has multiple overdose deaths every month.
Something about the state using the very drugs they have outlawed to forcibly OD a person to death seems a little not right for some reason.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Mermaid on May 08, 2021, 07:47:28 PM
Quote from: Hydra009 on May 08, 2021, 07:06:06 PM
Something about the state using the very drugs they have outlawed to forcibly OD a person to death seems a little not right for some reason.
I think this is a pretty big clue that executing people is abjectly wrong in every way.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Shiranu on May 08, 2021, 08:57:24 PM
The idea that the state should have the authority to take someone's life away is a little too despotic for my taste... even throwing people in prison for anything more than intentionally violent crimes, when you look at it objectively, is an extremely immoral practice by most people's definition of the word.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Mike Cl on May 08, 2021, 09:14:10 PM
4 states can now use firing squads.  They are the wonderful states of Utah, Mississippi, Oklahoma and now South Carolina.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Hydra009 on May 08, 2021, 09:31:10 PM
Quote from: Shiranu on May 08, 2021, 08:57:24 PM
The idea that the state should have the authority to take someone's life away is a little too despotic for my taste... even throwing people in prison for anything more than intentionally violent crimes, when you look at it objectively, is an extremely immoral practice by most people's definition of the word.
If the crime was violent and they're still an active threat to the community, they pretty much have to be separated from the community for its safety.  Otherwise, I don't see why they can't be gradually eased back into society.  Prison -> work release -> transitional housing -> general populace

We don't need to reinvent the wheel, just take note of what works (Norway comes to mind (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_Norway)) and do that.  It beats doing the same thing and getting the same result.

As an aside, I was watching a scifi show where defeated warriors are honor-bound to loyally serve whoever defeats them in battle.  This cultural norm is foreign to their adversaries, so naturally, the defeated warriors become POWs and are put in prison cells.  They consider this treatment barbaric, honorless, and incredibly insulting (akin to treating a human as an animal).  They contemplate escape despite the shame, reasoning that their captors left them little choice.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Gawdzilla Sama on May 09, 2021, 08:03:54 AM
Traditionally firing squads had one rifle loaded with a blank. This was a sop, "I had the blank so I didn't really kill anyone."
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: SGOS on May 09, 2021, 09:58:42 AM
Yeah, I don't think the blank justification would be that satisfying.  The bigger question would be, "What were you doing on the firing squad to begin with?"

I knew a guy in Montana who volunteered to be on a firing squad in Utah.  They sent him a polite letter saying they did not accept volunteers from out of state.  I wondered after that how they pick the firing squad.  Do they accept "walk ins?"  Would they require a resume?  Do you have to pass an eye exam?
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Mermaid on May 09, 2021, 02:05:45 PM
Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on May 09, 2021, 08:03:54 AM
Traditionally firing squads had one rifle loaded with a blank. This was a sop, "I had the blank so I didn't really kill anyone."
Yup. Further evidence.

It disgusts me.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Mermaid on May 09, 2021, 02:06:29 PM
Quote from: SGOS on May 09, 2021, 09:58:42 AM
Yeah, I don't think the blank justification would be that satisfying.  The bigger question would be, "What were you doing on the firing squad to begin with?"

I knew a guy in Montana who volunteered to be on a firing squad in Utah.  They sent him a polite letter saying they did not accept volunteers from out of state.  I wondered after that how they pick the firing squad.  Do they accept "walk ins?"  Would they require a resume?  Do you have to pass an eye exam?
A person that volunteers to participate isn't mentally all there.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Gawdzilla Sama on May 09, 2021, 03:50:28 PM
I had no trouble pulling the switch when I was asked to act as a stand-in for the father of dead twin 2 year old girls.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Mermaid on May 09, 2021, 04:01:56 PM
Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on May 09, 2021, 03:50:28 PM
I had no trouble pulling the switch when I was asked to act as a stand-in for the father of dead twin 2 year old girls.
What? Really? How does that work? Do people actually get to do the execution?
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Gawdzilla Sama on May 09, 2021, 06:15:41 PM
Quote from: Mermaid on May 09, 2021, 04:01:56 PM
What? Really? How does that work? Do people actually get to do the execution?
At that time, yes. Haven't asked since then. Not much in Indiana for me these days.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Mermaid on May 09, 2021, 07:00:50 PM
Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on May 09, 2021, 06:15:41 PM
At that time, yes. Haven't asked since then. Not much in Indiana for me these days.
WHOA.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: trdsf on May 14, 2021, 08:26:47 PM
Quote from: Feral Atheist on May 08, 2021, 05:51:35 PM
What is stopping the use of opioids for lethal drug executions?  It works, every community across the country has multiple overdose deaths every month.
Now that is the way to be 'stoned' to death.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: SGOS on May 14, 2021, 09:45:26 PM
Quote from: Feral Atheist on May 08, 2021, 05:51:35 PM
What is stopping the use of opioids for lethal drug executions?  It works, every community across the country has multiple overdose deaths every month.
Opioids are addictive.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Gawdzilla Sama on May 15, 2021, 09:01:29 AM
Quote from: SGOS on May 14, 2021, 09:45:26 PM
Opioids are addictive.
Some are for some people. At one point I was taking 270 mg. of oxycontin daily, for over a year. Then I stopped. No heebeejeebees. The only addiction I've had that was bad for me was tobacco. Stopped that cold turkey. Things were ugly for a while.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: SGOS on May 15, 2021, 09:10:12 AM
Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on May 15, 2021, 09:01:29 AM
The only addiction I've had that was bad for me was tobacco. Stopped that cold turkey. Things were ugly for a while.
I've been there.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Gawdzilla Sama on May 15, 2021, 11:38:04 AM
The sizzle was the most annoying thing.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Cassia on May 15, 2021, 12:08:05 PM
I had a valium when I was getting Lasik done to correct my eyesight. I felt like butter. Oh...is that my eyeball I smell burning? LOL. No problem. I love you.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: SoldierofFortune on May 15, 2021, 12:19:07 PM
The most humane way to execute someone is I think to inject him a golden shot of heroin.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Hijiri Byakuren on May 15, 2021, 02:41:01 PM
Or we could just abolish the death penalty, like civilized countries already have.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Mermaid on May 15, 2021, 03:25:38 PM
Quote from: Hijiri Byakuren on May 15, 2021, 02:41:01 PM
Or we could just abolish the death penalty, like civilized countries already have.
We are so far from civilized at this point. Death penalty is a rather popular notion here in the USA, sadly. I think it's absolutely wrong in every way.
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Hydra009 on May 15, 2021, 04:06:35 PM
Quote from: Hijiri Byakuren on May 15, 2021, 02:41:01 PMOr we could just abolish the death penalty, like civilized countries already have.
It's a deterrent.  Otherwise, we'd be swamped with crime like those civilized countries are. /s
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Gawdzilla Sama on May 15, 2021, 06:39:27 PM
Quote from: Hijiri Byakuren on May 15, 2021, 02:41:01 PM
Or we could just abolish the death penalty, like civilized countries already have.
Civilization? Great idea! Uh, when we gonna get one?
Title: Re: Bring Back the Firing Squads
Post by: Hydra009 on June 01, 2021, 11:37:48 PM
Arizona considering using same gas used to murder people in Aushwitz (https://www.insider.com/arizona-plans-hydrogen-cyanide-death-row-inmates-auschwitz-gas-2021-5)

I did nazi that coming