A condemned murderer in Utah rekindled an old debate about the death penalty this month with seven quick words: "I would like the firing squad, please," Ronnie Lee Gardner told the judge who signed his death warrant. Gardner, slated to die in June, would be the first U.S. inmate to die by firing squad since 1996, and only the third since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Gardner told a cousin he prefers the method — currently used in no state but Utah — because he's been shot before. But critics say it's inhumane. Are firing squads "cruel and unusual"? (Watch an NBC report about Ronnie Lee Gardner's request)
Even Utah recognizes this as "barbaric": "Forty-nine states ban execution via firing squad," says Megha Desai in PRWatch.org. And that includes Utah, which only gave Ronnie Lee Gardner that option because his crime preceded the ban. This is a "barbaric" practice, and the fact that it's still happening in this day and age is a disgrace.
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