Utah firing squad executes convicted killer

A death row inmate who had used a gun to fatally shoot two men suffered the same fate Friday morning as he was executed by a team of marksmen — the first time Utah used the firing squad to carry out a death sentence in 14 years.

A barrage of bullets tore into Ronnie Lee Gardner's chest where a target was pinned over his heart. Two minutes later an ashen Gardner, blood pooling in his dark blue jumpsuit, was pronounced dead at 12:17 a.m.

He was the third man to die by firing squad since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_utah_firi ... n7u4BzfNdF

I read somewhere yesterday (can't find it now) that you die within a minute by firing squad and it takes 9 minutes to die by lethal injection.

Didn't Ronnie Lee say " live by the gun die by the gun"?

I thought that was Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke.

Might be the last firing squad execution in the US. Utah banned the practice after this one was dictated.

Maybe Ronnie Lee stole the line, he was after all a criminal.

You can't bring more than $10,000 on an airplane so we drive to Vegas a lot..And I hate even driving through Utah..All you get is Rush, Sean Hannity and other local whack'os on the radio, and I feel if the car breaks down I could walk into "a hills have eyes" type nightmare...Sometimes we go through Durango, down into New Mexico and across that way....

Durango has a nice brewery/resturaunt and there's a few bush tracks in northern New Mexico, and I like the radio station better there...



This went on for 45 minutes

We usually stay overnight at the El Rancho

While my wife was getting dolled up for dinner there I walked down the street and got a six pack of cold brew, on the way back i see this old injun walking down the street with a shopping cart filled with all his belongings so I offered the old timer a beer- He gladly accepted..I walked with him back towards the hotel and asked him about that ridiculous music (Click on the video above i posted) they like, I asked him if it was a war chant or whatever and he said no, not a war chant..I asked him if the drummer gets tired..He said what they do is they all dance to the beat and then eventually all their heartbeats sychronize to the drum beat, and they all become like one big heartbeat..They all become one..Then it made sense..I gave him another beer and brought up the fact that i'm part indian..He got a disgusted look on his face and shook his head so I said see ya later..The next day while going under the underpass to get on the highway to Vegas I saw him again..I pulled over, told him goodbye, gave him a few warm beers and a bag of pork rinds I had bought for the rest of the trip. My wife asked who that was and I told her, "just an old friend honey" and explained what the music was all about

Wayne:

I don't see the point of shooting a guy 25 years after he was convicted....

Apologists for Capital punishment says it sets an example ----

I don't see how housing and feeding a guy for 25 years (and then shooting him) sets an effective example.

I don't really oppose capital punishment in principle - but I doubt it accomplishes its intended purpose.

bailey bud wrote: Wayne:

I don't see the point of shooting a guy 25 years after he was convicted....

Apologists for Capital punishment says it sets an example ----

I don't see how housing and feeding a guy for 25 years (and then shooting him) sets an effective example.

I don't really oppose capital punishment in principle - but I doubt it accomplishes its intended purpose.

No it doesn't..It's purely punitive. Isn't the goal to stop the crime instead of punish crime? Some people need help, caging them up in monster factories is sensless and just results in more crime...

Even if the point is to punish crime --- it's not doing what it is intended to do ---- there's a long line of people on death row.

Few, if any murderers are actually punished.

I would hazard a guess that more murderers are killed by fellow inmates than the executioners.

Yeah, I'll validate your opinion that the death penalty doesn't deter anybody....