Ready, aim... Fire?

Let’s pretend, just for a moment, that I believe in the death penalty (ha, ha). If I had to choose the best way to kill a person, I’d say a bullet to the brain – the method adopted by China until they recently converted to lethal injection because it’s so much more civilized. A bullet to the brain does what it says on the tin – it’s fast, cheap, and guaranteed to work, unlike the electric chair which can short out and cause heads to catch fire, the lethal injection which can take hours to be carried out, hanging which can cause a slow death by suffocation or a beheading… You get the point.

But a bullet to the brain would not be very pleasant to the witnesses or, indeed, the executioners. Loud and certainly very gory. Not like the lethal injection, where the condemned is drugged to a state of complete paralysis and so can’t even flutter an eyelid to indicate the agony they’re almost certainly in while the potassium chloride kills them. We’re not taking into account what’s pleasant for the inmate, of course, because although the constitution forbids cruel and unusual punishment, the real reasoning behind changing execution methods is to convince the public that execution is acceptable. The gallows replaced the guillotine; the electric chair replaced the gallows; and lethal injection replaced the electric chair. The process became all the more clinical and all the more palatable, while the actual suffering of the inmate in question probably got worse along the way.

Did you know that the man who invented the current lethal injection cocktail, Fred Leuchter, stated he would rather be electrocuted than to die by his own method? That says rather a lot about the so-called ‘humane’ lethal injection.

In my opinion, lethal injection is a truly awful way to die. Watch the movie Dead Man Walking with Susan Sarandon if you want to see an accurate reconstruction of an execution by lethal injection. In front of god knows how many witnesses, the condemned is strapped to a gurney with their arms outstretched as though being crucified, paralyzed to a state of frozen helplessness, and killed in what is most likely an agonizing manner. It is a most humiliating way to kill another human being.

Perhaps that is why Ronnie Lee Gardner seems determined that his execution be carried out by firing squad.

I’m not saying firing squad is a particularly nice way to die, either. You are strapped to a chair with a blindfold and a target over your heart. Death is caused by massive damage to the heart, central nervous system and other vital organs, or a combination, as well as hemorrhaging. Unlike my bullet-to-the-brain scenario, it mightn’t be instant. The executioners stand at a distance, and they aren’t guaranteed to hit the target. You might die slowly and, most probably, in terrible pain.

Utah is one of only two states which have death by firing squad on the books, and only for inmates sentenced before 2004. When asked which method he would like to die by, Gardner replied “I would like death by firing squad, please.” Although his execution is penciled in for June 18th, by firing squad, Utah is mighty reluctant to grant his wish.

You can appreciate their hesitance. Let’s face it – there’s going to be blood. Lots of it. There’s a distinct possibility that Gardner will slowly bleed to death in front of thirty or so witnesses. That’s going to embarrass the state a lot. It may even open a few eyes, cause a public outcry, and perhaps even catalyze a moratorium. Who knows how much damage could be caused when those bullets start flying, and not just to Ronnie Lee.

I don’t know whether Gardner was plotting when he chose the firing squad, or whether he really does think death by firing squad is preferable to lethal injection (I’m honestly not sure which way I’d prefer), but he’s really got Utah in a pickle. He might well be thinking they’ll commute his sentence to life imprisonment to avoid public embarrassment (and they honestly might, in my opinion). Or, he might want his execution to bring about the scenarios I mentioned – eye-opening, et cetera. Maybe he wants people to see grown men pump him full of bullets in an apparently civilized country on June 18th. Maybe he just wants to be remembered.

Either way, June 18th is drawing closer and closer. Utah better make up its mind. The rifles are loaded, the stage is set. But will the United States allow this bloody and brutal execution? Right now, it’s anybody’s bet.