South Carolina schedules firing squad execution for April 29th

[politicallefty]

Link.

A man sentenced to death in South Carolina has chosen to be executed by firing squad rather than the electric chair, which would make him the first death row inmate to die by firing squad in the state.

Richard Bernard Moore, 57, would also be the first person executed in South Carolina in more than a decade, as the state has struggled to procure the drugs required to perform lethal injection.

[...]

In a court filing Friday, Moore chose to die by firing squad but added in a statement he will not lose hope in two pending court challenges to the constitutionality of the state's death penalty methods.

"I believe this election is forcing me to choose between two unconstitutional methods of execution, and I do not intend to waive any challenges to electrocution or firing squad by making an election," he said in the statement.

He did not have the option of choosing lethal injection, as South Carolina does not have the necessary drugs, according to the filing. The department previously told CNN the state has not been in possession of a usable dose of lethal injection drugs since 2013.

The most recent execution in this country by firing squad was by the state of Utah in 2010 (one of only four executions by firing squad in the past 60+ years).

I've certainly made my position on the death penalty here very apparent over the years. However, if the death penalty is to be imposed, it needs to be realized for what it is. I'm glad to see lethal injection move to the wayside. It was neither humane nor a full realization of what is being done. I think the older methods of execution make some pro-death penalty individuals far more uncomfortable (something I know from direct personal conversations).

[dead0man]

all the stories about this guy are about his method of execution, I can only get that he murdered a store clerk during a robbery.  Is that all?  That doesn't seem like enough.  It's bad, don't get me wrong, but people have done far worse and got out young enough to do more horrible things.  Did he have a history?  He must have had a history...right?

edit=further Googling confirmed that he had a long history of violent robberies to support his drug habit.

[afleitch]

all the stories about this guy are about his method of execution, I can only get that he murdered a store clerk during a robbery.  Is that all?  That doesn't seem like enough.  It's bad, don't get me wrong, but people have done far worse and got out young enough to do more horrible things.  Did he have a history?  He must have had a history...right?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bernard_Moore

Apparently not.

[politicallefty]

all the stories about this guy are about his method of execution, I can only get that he murdered a store clerk during a robbery.  Is that all?  That doesn't seem like enough.  It's bad, don't get me wrong, but people have done far worse and got out young enough to do more horrible things.  Did he have a history?  He must have had a history...right?

edit=further Googling confirmed that he had a long history of violent robberies to support his drug habit.

He's black and he was convicted and sentenced in South Carolina. You should also consider the way they stack so-called "death-qualified" juries. The crime also happened in 1999, which was the post-Furman peak for new death sentences and executions.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Good. Firing squad is humane.

[Sir Mohamed]

Welcome back to the 19th Century!

[John Dule]

I hate the death penalty, but if we're gonna do it, this is the way we should use.

[Aurelius]

Good. It should also be made public.

[Storr]

To be fair, his choice was between electrocution and firing squad. One is a guaranteed quick death, while the other might require several painful jolts of electricity. I'd probably choose firing squad too, if I had to make that decision.

I'm against the death penalty, but imo this guy's crime doesn't seem to be among the "worst of the worst". He didn't even bring a gun when he went to rob the convenience store. He grabbed ahold of the clerk's gun during a fight and the fatal shooting occurred when the clerk pulled out a second gun.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Yah this doesn’t  change my opinion on the death penalty

[President Johnson]

I dunno, last time I checked my calendar it was 2022.

[TheReckoning]

There’s people who deserve it way more than him that aren’t being executed. The death penalty, the way it’s currently applied, is inherently arbitrary, and needs to be abolished ASAP.

[Horus]

Civilized countries don't use the death penalty.

[Joe Republic]

Almost all civilized countries: "We've banned the barbaric death penalty, and the rampant proliferation of guns and its associated culture. Our citizens are better off for it."

United States, with cheap domestic beer spilled all over itself: "Oh yeAh?! *hic* WeLL watCh tHis:"

[Fuzzy Bear]

I'm a death penalty opponent, but if we're going to carry it out, then this is the least inhumane method.

This guy is neither good nor innocent,  but he's also been on death row for over 20 years.   I would like to see Governors commute all death sentences to Life without parole.  Death Row confinement for over 2 decades is,  IMO, cruel and unusual punishment by definition.  I sympathize with families wanting maximum retribution, but I don't want to create wrongs that cannot be righted. 

[Not Me, Us]

Honestly, firing squads are more humane than most methods of execution. It's instantaneous and painless. I really can't believe the electric chair is still used, that's barbaric.

[emailking]

How is this humane? Your brain can be alive well after your heart stops beating.

[TDAS04]

If we must have the death penalty, it should be either this or the guillotine.

[emailking]

No response in over a day lol. Yeah it's neither instant or humane. Your heart being shattered doesn't mean all conscious thought has stopped.

[Fuzzy Bear]

No response in over a day lol. Yeah it's neither instant or humane. Your heart being shattered doesn't mean all conscious thought has stopped.

It's tough to die, period.  People with massive heart attacks also have conscious thought after their heart gives out. 

Again:  I'm not for the Death Penalty.  But if we're going to be this preoccupied about the suffering of the murderer, (and that's valid to a point) then I can understand why there shouldn't be some public focus on how the victim died from the point of the victim's surviving family.

[emailking]

If they're guilty and there aren't significant mitigating circumstances then lock them up forever. It's a completely different question and I'm not interested in focusing on it beyond that.

[Adam Griffin]

Good. Firing squad is humane.

I actually agree to an extent in terms of all the procedures used (though on principle, I don't believe the state has the right to take human life in situations where it is avoidable), but I heard that the new SC law only uses 3 "prison workers" for the firing squad. Not sure what their qualifications have to be, but with only 3, the chances of actually hitting the vital "target" on the first round is far less than with a greater number of shooters, and I imagine the psychological impact could be higher on those tasked with it due to fewer people actually involved (even if the statistical likelihood of not having a real bullet etc in the gun is higher).

Anyway, haven't done much research on it and not sure if I'm right about the procedure in SC, but if I'm right, this scene comes to mind:

[DaleCooper]

I'm still a huge supporter of the death penalty but this person doesn't meet my standards for execution. He should have his sentence commuted.

[Lief 🗽]

Extremely weird and deranged that these people need to come up with the most graphically violent way to execute prisoners, instead of just copying whatever the Dutch do for assisted suicide.

[Santander]

Civilized countries don't use the death penalty.

On the contrary, all of the most civilized countries in the world have the death penalty on the books. (the US not being one of them, of course)