Starting on July 1, Idaho will become the only state in the union that uses a firing squad as its primary option to fulfill its death penalty obligations. Idaho will also become one of only three states that include child rape as a death penalty crime.
Currently, the firing squad option is Idaho’s second option after lethal injection.
Five states currently offer firing squads as a death penalty option. Last March, South Carolina executed 67-year-old Brad Sigmon by firing squad. Sigmon had been on death row for nearly a quarter century for beating his ex-girlfriend’s parents to death with a baseball bat in 2001.
Prior to Sigmon, no one had been executed by firing squad in the U.S. since 2010.
The most controversial part of this July 1 legal change is, believe it or not, Idaho adding the rape of a child under age 12 to its list of death penalty crimes.
In 2008, by a five-to-four decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty for child rapists was not proportional to the crime and struck it down as a violation of the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Since then, though, both Florida and Tennessee have passed laws adding child rape to death penalty crimes. With Idaho being the third, the Court will likely be forced to revisit the case, and we have a much different and more reasonable Supreme Court today.
As of today, eight men and one woman await their fate on Idaho’s death row, a state that has only performed three executions in 50 years.
Take this for what it’s worth from someone with no medical training, but given the choices available, I’d choose a few bullets to the heart over any other method of execution. Electric chair? No way. Lethal injection looks peaceful, but it takes a while. Blow up the heart, and it’s over instantly. Easier on the recipient, but harder on the witnesses due to the violence.
The most famous execution by firing squad, at least during my lifetime, is Gary Gilmore. A degenerate drug addict and career criminal, after spending most of his adult life in prison, Gilmore was paroled in April of 1976 and landed in Provo, Utah. There, despite being given every opportunity and advantage to reform, he immediately returned to his criminal ways, culminating in two robbery homicides the following year — a gas station attendant and a hotel manager. Both men complied. Both were executed just because Gilmore needed to kill.
These were clumsy, low-level crimes committed out of rage, not for the money.
Lucky for Gilmore, who hated prison life and wanted to die, after a four-year moratorium, the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty just a couple of weeks prior to Gilmore committing his double murder. And so, after being convicted and sentenced to death, Gilmore achieved worldwide fame for not only refusing to pursue any appeals but also requesting death by firing squad.
My favorite part of all is the great art inspired by Gilmore.
Here’s a second season Saturday Night Live episode featuring the heartwarming Christmas song: “Let’s Kill Gary Gilmore for Christmas.” It’s easy to forget just how great that show once was. If you have Amazon Prime, you can watch the clip at the 54-minute mark.
Gilmore almost got his Christmas wish. He was executed by firing squad on January 17, 1977, a little over three months after his sentencing.
After that came Norman Mailer’s 1979 recounting of Gilmore’s parole, the murders, the trial, and the publicity around his execution in the Pulitzer-winning non-fiction novel The Executioner’s Song. In 1982, Tommy Lee Jones became a star and won an Emmy for his portrayal of Gilmore in the TV movie adaptation.
If you believe in the death penalty, as I do, firing squads are the most humane method.
And I most certainly believe child rapists deserve to be executed.
Read the full article here