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.
We should switch to execution by strangling to death by hand. The judge has to conduct the execution.
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
Maybe their firing squad line up behind one another?
Which is dumb because you can clearly tell whether you had the blank or not from the amount of recoil.
Three shooters just isn’t enough.
Funny, I think it’s three too many.
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
Come on, everyone always mentions the elementary schools, but we have plenty of other gun ranges. High schools, colleges, workplaces, shopping malls…
movie theaters to really make the action come to life?
. . . Concerts, thrift stores, department stores, clubs . . .
Dont forget churches!
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?
Because no medical professional will do it.
It goes completely against the entire pride and ethics of that profession.
You don’t put yourself through all the education required to become a physician, to then help kill people against their will.Met any anti-vax nurses? I guarantee you that you could find some medical professionals who would do it.
I don’t know what’s more appalling, the number of antivax nurses or the number of people who reference their antivax nurse friends as authoritative sources. They are not doctors. They are not pathologisists. They are not immunologists, biologists, chemists, neurologists, or any other relevant ologists you can think of.
I don’t trust the Jiffy Lube oil change tech to diagnose my car’s power loss, but I guarantee they’ll have some anecdotal ideas because they “hear” about things all the time. I don’t trust an experienced mechanic to give a proper statement on reliability, either, because a mechanic will only see cars when they’re broken, biasing the sample.
So how do nurses become the voice of fact on this? I mean, I know why. It’s confirmation bias. This is more me screaming into the void, fuckin why?
Oh, I hear ya. It’s super frustrating. It’s often presented as as weird sort of “speaking truth to power” as well. “Doctors don’t know anything - my nurse friend says …”
I think a whole lot of it comes from the fact that doctors just don’t spend as much time with patients as nurses do. Nurses build a relationship with people and the doctor just swoops in for a few minutes here and there.
People trust a friend over an authority nine times out of ten. :-(
Anti-vax people don’t generally hold that stance because they’re evil. They’re misinformed. Doctor willing to sedate a person whose about to get murdered and one that’s sceptical about vaccines is not equivalent.
I don’t know for sure if they’re all anti-vax, but there are definitely some problems with the kinds of medical professionals prisons often hire
(I could swear I saw a ProPublica article within the last month about how state prison systems all across the country hire doctors who got disciplined or lost their licenses in other states but I can’t seem to find it now, so here are some slightly older articles or ones that focus on specific states, but this is definitely still a current problem and not one that just happens in one state or another)
“Many state hospital, prison doctors without medical licenses” (arc)
“Disgraced doctors, unlicensed officials: Prisons face criticism over health care” (arc)
“Nearly one-third of doctors working in Wisconsin’s prisons have been censured” (arc)
“When Prison Nurses Must Choose Between Guards & Patients: In dozens of cases, medical personnel in NY prisons were accused of covering up beatings — some under pressure — and rarely faced punishment.” (arc)
Oof, yeah that tracks.
Anti-vaxxers legitimately believe that vaccines do harm. I don’t think that’s comparable.
There’s way too many that get vaccinations, then turn around and spout anti-vax nonsense for the grift. Going to medical school does not just make you a pood person.
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I don’t think overdosing someone on morphine or some such anaesthetic or drug requires a medical degree.
Drug addicts seem to do it to themselves on accident all the fucking time. If a street junkie can do it, then I’m sure some training (that does not amount to a medical degree) would be enough.
The medical degree isn’t about knowing how to knock them out. It’s about knowing how to bring them back.
That sounds nice but ignores mountains of readily available evidence to the contrary. Lethal injections are performed by physicians.
Lethal injections are performed by physicians.
No they are not. They’re usually performed by volunteers, most commonly EMTs or nurses. A lot of state protocols request that a physician be present to witness and call time of death, but even that’s rare.
The code of ethics in the AMA strictly prohibits physicians from participating in executions.
“A physician must not participate in a legally authorized execution,” the American Medical Association says in its Code of Medical Ethics. “When physicians participate in capital punishment, they are being utilized to intentionally inflict harm by using their medical knowledge and skills to forcibly cause death,” AMA media relations manager R.J. Mills told NPR. “Physicians who participate in capital punishment take an active role as agents of the state, not as advocates for the condemned, even if their intent is to minimize suffering.”
The cruelty is the point with these people.
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.
Any medical professional would lose their licence if they participated in any way.
Honestly, with the amount of fent over there if I was on death row I’d rather get some smuggled in than risk a botched execution. No anesthesiologist needed.
Officials placed a hood over Mahdi’s head before the staff fired, according to an Associated Press reporter, who was a witness. As shots were fired, Mahdi cried out and his arms flexed, and after roughly 45 seconds, he groaned twice, the AP said. His breaths continued for around 80 seconds, then a doctor examined him for a minute. He was declared dead roughly four minutes after the shots.
It’s a lesser point but still…
At less than five meters they managed to not hit his heart but they did manage to hit his pancreas and liver.
This is two people aiming at a static target, a human being, not moving, and you still managed to get that far off
For the gun touting maniacs that they are, Americans really suck at aiming
Who says they wanted to hit the vital spots?
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
Of all the ways to die, getting shot is among the quickest and least painful ones. I’d honestly probably choose that over drugs.
Depends on the location, I’d rather not have them shoot my heart. Both options are inconsistent as fuck though
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Is there any good reason why the rifles aren’t firmly fixed to a stand so they point directly at the heart, with the shooters only pulling the trigger?
Even with something like that, going for the heart is just prolonging suffering, which is usually the point
People are different height and don’t stand still just to name a few.
You can adjust the stand and immobilize the people.
And in other news, South Carolina introduces bill for executions by dynamite to begin later this year.
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This is how I want to go.
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.
Wouldn’t everyone just choose old age or snu snu?
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.
Michael Douglas in Falling Down: “Take shooting lessons, asshole.”
We know it takes very little fent to stop the heart and breathing. Why not just inject 10x that and have the person slip off in opium land? Seems straightforward and foolproof.
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Lol, Americans can’t even use their guns right
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.
This would only work if the people in the firing squad had never shot a gun before. There’s no recoil with blanks. You’d be able to immediately tell.
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