‘‘endured pain beyond the “10-to-15 second” window of consciousness that was expected.’’
So up to 15 seconds of agony is expected. Fucking barbarians.
The article stated that there were three shooters, and only two gunshot wounds. I seem to recall from the early '70s that firing squads of five people or so always secretly loaded one weapon with blanks. That way the shooters could all convince themselves that they were the one who had the blank if their conscience bothered them. Maybe these guys did the same thing but with only three shooters…
I think if you can’t find someone with the fortitude to put a hole in the victim’s brain stem at muzzle contact range (let’s ask the people who pushed for this punishment, for example), and you have to go through all this procedure to alleviate “guilty consciences”, maybe the whole idea isn’t so great?
While I agree with the conclusion, making a moral judgment based on a random persons guilty conscience isn’t very reliable.
Which is dumb because you can clearly tell whether you had the blank or not from the amount of recoil.
That is the protocol in Utah for firing squads, but not South Carolina
As for why Mahdi’s body showed two wounds from the execution rather than three, a doctor noted in the comments section on the autopsy commissioned by the state that “it is believed that” two bullets went through one wound. Whereas in Utah, not all members of the state’s firing squad shoot live bullets, in South Carolina, the rifles of all three shooters were supposed to be loaded with ammunition.
The two wounds on Mahdi’s body were described in the autopsy as being almost exactly the same size. Pathologists who reviewed the report expressed doubt that two bullets went through precisely the same, small hole.
“I think the odds of that are pretty minuscule,” Wigren said
This shows a number of things. First, how barbarian and backwards death penalty is. Second, Americans are not even good at shooting.
it’s out of their culture’s preferred shooting range, the elementary school
I am against the death penalty, it’s a barbaric practice and not something a civilized country should do.
But for fucks sake, when you decide to have it, why not just heavily sedate someone first, with the help of an anesthesiologist or another medical professional?
with the help of an anesthesiologist or another medical professional
Usually medical professionals aren’t involved because it’s a violation of their oath to do no harm. So then these sadistic bumblefucks just do whatever they want.
Why were they not aiming for the head? 2 headshots would have put him out of his misery instantly even if the 3rd person missed.
It’s either because they want to pretend it’s a civilized execution method by making it look better or because they want to keep the option of doing it wrong and making the victim suffer longer.
I’m pretty sure people sentenced to death get to choose their execution method, so this guy chose firing squad?
The death penalty is barbaric no matter how it’s done, but if the state was going to put me to death then bleeding out in five minutes by firing squad seems a lot better than drug-induced tortured breathing for an hour.
They’re doing firing squad executions still?
Jesus Christ.
Recently some states have brought it back specifically. No points for guessing which way those states lean politically.
it’s meant to be less shitty than the lethal injection etc.
of course, unless they fuck it up
The article mentions only noticing 2 hits on the body. My understanding is that there is always 1 blank in a firing squad execution, to leave some amount of doubt in the minds of those pulling the trigger. I would point to that as to why there were only 2 bullet holes, but I would also expect everyone, from those quoted to the journalist writing the article, to know that, so now I have to second guess whether or not that is the case after all.
Edit: here
I would ask for any kind of source on that, instead of just repeating it like an urban legend. That’s probably why they didn’t include it in the article.
A’ight. Here you go.
