The news this morning is that the state of Utah has legalised the firing squad as a method of execution. Apparently there is a shortage of the chemicals needed for lethal injection.
If members here were to advise other American States, what methods of execution would they suggest, and why?
I might start by asking what the State saw as the purpose of execution. Is it for economy, to save housing prisoners? Is it for punishment? Is it for deterrence?
Proponents of capital punishment often try to present their methods as 'humane', but a painless glide into oblivion is only really compatible with the first objective. It's not much of a punishment compared with a life of suffering in a hell-hole prison, nor is it, for that reason, much of a deterrent, particularly if the death is behind closed doors, invisible to the public.
So what do people think?
If members here were to advise other American States, what methods of execution would they suggest, and why?
I might start by asking what the State saw as the purpose of execution. Is it for economy, to save housing prisoners? Is it for punishment? Is it for deterrence?
Proponents of capital punishment often try to present their methods as 'humane', but a painless glide into oblivion is only really compatible with the first objective. It's not much of a punishment compared with a life of suffering in a hell-hole prison, nor is it, for that reason, much of a deterrent, particularly if the death is behind closed doors, invisible to the public.
So what do people think?