What the hell? This state can be awesome sometimes...firing squad?

[Manedwolf]

Yes, he seems to be serious, and yes, it's real...Ha!

NH Rep.: expand death penalty, add firing squad

By Associated Press
Monday, January 26, 2009 - Added 4m ago

CONCORD, N.H. — A Keene, N.H., lawmaker wants to expand New Hampshire’s death penalty to include more crimes, and make death by a firing squad the punishment in some cases.

The current law includes the murder of judges and law enforcement officials, as well as murder for hire, murder connected to certain drug offenses and murder during a rape. But Rep. Delmar Burridge, a Democrat, also wants to include murder during a robbery or other felony using a gun.

Under the bill he has sponsored, anyone convicted under that expansion would face a firing squad instead of lethal injection. He says threatening would-be murderers with a firing squad would be a more effective deterrent.

09-0024

04/01

HOUSE BILL 37

AN ACT relative to the penalty for using a gun in the commission of a felony.

SPONSORS: Rep. Burridge, Ches 3

COMMITTEE: Criminal Justice and Public Safety

ANALYSIS

This bill provides for death by firing squad for causing the death of another by the use of a firearm, while engaged in the commission of a felony.

http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2009/HB0037.html

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Nine

AN ACT relative to the penalty for using a gun in the commission of a felony.

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

1 Homicide; Capital Murder. Amend RSA 630:1, I to read as follows:

I. A person is guilty of capital murder if he or she knowingly causes the death of:

(a) A law enforcement officer or a judicial officer acting in the line of duty or when the death is caused as a consequence of or in retaliation for such person’s actions in the line of duty;

(b) Another before, after, while engaged in the commission of, or while attempting to commit kidnapping as that offense is defined in RSA 633:1;

(c) Another by criminally soliciting a person to cause said death or after having been criminally solicited by another for his personal pecuniary gain;

(d) Another after being sentenced to life imprisonment without parole pursuant to RSA 630:1-a, III;

(e) Another before, after, while engaged in the commission of, or while attempting to commit aggravated felonious sexual assault as defined in RSA 632-A:2;

(f) Another before, after, while engaged in the commission of, or while attempting to commit an offense punishable under RSA 318-B:26, I(a) or (b);

(g) Another, by the use of a firearm, while engaged in the commission of a felony.

2 Homicide; Procedure in Capital Murder. Amend RSA 630:5, XV to read as follows:

XV.(a) Except as provided in subparagraph (b), an execution carried out by lethal injection shall be performed by a person selected by the commissioner of the department of corrections and trained to administer the injection. The person administering the injection need not be a physician, registered nurse, or licensed practical nurse, licensed or registered under the laws of this or any other state.

(b) When the penalty of death is imposed, the punishment for a defendant convicted under RSA 630:1, I(g) shall be execution by firing squad. If execution by firing squad is to be carried out, the commissioner of the department of corrections or designee shall select a 5-person firing squad of peace officers. The commissioner or designee shall ensure that the method of judgment of death specified in the warrant is carried out at a secure correctional facility operated by the department at an hour determined by the department on the date specified in the warrant. Compensation for firing squad members shall be in an amount determined by the commissioner of the department of corrections.

3 Effective Date. This act shall take effect January 1, 2010.

[Standing Wolf]

Rope is cheaper and reusable.

[makattak]

Rope is cheaper and reusable.

... than a single bullet?

[dogmush]

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

It should be Hemp or Manila rope though.  Nylon isn't very green.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

firing squads are a circus.  this proposal sounds like political autoeroticism.    its no accident places got rid of firing squads.

[Manedwolf]

firing squads are a circus.  this proposal sounds like political autoeroticism.    its no accident places got rid of firing squads.

I think it'd be an effective deterrent.

[freedom lover]

I think it'd be an effective deterrent.

I would imagine that the guillotine would be more of a deterrent, despite being slightly harder to maintain. Hanging is creepy too, though. And cheaper.

[AZRedhawk44]

I allow myself the comforting delusion that I would be skilled enough to use a firearm for self defense, or for repelling the blue helmeted commiezombies that are sure to come some day here ... but I don't think I'd have the cool necessary to put a rifle bullet into a man tied to a firing post at 10 paces.

A little too close to his eyes, if you know what I mean.  Yeah, he's a scumbag murderer/rapist/whatever.  I worry that my nerves would hold up at bang-time and I would wobble the shot, end up gut-shooting him or something awful like that.

Hanging with a drop-floor actuated by a lever, electronic lethal injection / gas / electric chair are deaths not dependent upon the skill of the executioner.

I think "way back when" that the executioner wore the big black mask for his own sake, not to protect him from retribution via anonymity.  It's gotta be downright nerve-wracking to deliberately kill someone who's restrained and awaiting your own personally delivered doom.  People who enjoy that type of stuff tend to get captured and put on death row.

Killing in battle, sniping enemy soldiers, clandestine assassinations via knife or poison... they're still different, at least in my mind.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

why would a firing squad deter more than any other method?

[HankB]

I support the death penalty for certain crimes including murder, but I'd have a difficult time convicting someone under the law as stated in this thread as I do not accept that someone's life is more important than John Q. Public's simply because they happen to work as government employees. ( "(a) A law enforcement officer or a judicial officer . . . " )

[Firethorn]

I allow myself the comforting delusion that I would be skilled enough to use a firearm for self defense, or for repelling the blue helmeted commiezombies that are sure to come some day here ... but I don't think I'd have the cool necessary to put a rifle bullet into a man tied to a firing post at 10 paces.

Then go with bench-rest .50 cals @ 1000 yards.  At the very least, I'll point out that firing squad was a tradition for a long time.  They can find people to pull the trigger.  Heck, mount some single shots to an electronic firing system with the guy tied up at a defined point.

I support the death penalty for certain crimes including murder, but I'd have a difficult time convicting someone under the law as stated in this thread as I do not accept that someone's life is more important than John Q. Public's simply because they happen to work as government employees. ( "(a) A law enforcement officer or a judicial officer . . . " )

+1M  I don't really care WHO the victim is, other than to note that I'd generally be harsher on somebody who harms a child over an adult.  I'd look more towards the methodology.  An 'accident' during a crime would rate less than a premeditated torture&murder.

[lone_gunman]

why would a firing squad deter more than any other method?

Actually, I think it is less deterrent than the electric chair.  Of all the commonly used forms of execution, I would want to be electrocuted the least.  It is always painful, and sometimes not immediately successful.  So they have to zap you a few times.  Also, sometimes you catch on fire.  My second least preferred method would be hanging, because if your neck doesnt break, you have to choke to death.

Lethal injection, the gas chamber, and firing squads are going to be the least painful.

[RoadKingLarry]

Our whole system of crime and punishment stinks.
I think we need to go towards a much more public punishment phase.
For lesser crimes like vandalism, petit theft and the ilk a good old fashioned public caning is in order. Let the miscreants be seen getting their backside flailed on the 6:00pm news cast with a full relating of the crime convicted of.
For capital crimes where the death penalty is to be imposed a public hanging is called for. Roll a bunch of human filth out on a big flatbed truck during halftime at the Super Bowl and let them swing.

[Viking]

Our whole system of crime and punishment stinks.
I think we need to go towards a much more public punishment phase.
For lesser crimes like vandalism, petit theft and the ilk a good old fashioned public caning is in order. Let the miscreants be seen getting their backside flailed on the 6:00pm news cast with a full relating of the crime convicted of.
For capital crimes where the death penalty is to be imposed a public hanging is called for. Roll a bunch of human filth out on a big flatbed truck during halftime at the Super Bowl and let them swing.

Hear, hear. Personally, I wish we'd bring back the death penalty here. Might as well bring back public flogging while we are at it.

[longeyes]

Somewhere between "the circus" (which never really left town) and Koranic "justice" lieth justice.

[AZRedhawk44]

I think we need to go towards a much more public punishment phase.
For lesser crimes like vandalism, petit theft and the ilk a good old fashioned public caning is in order. Let the miscreants be seen getting their backside flailed on the 6:00pm news cast with a full relating of the crime convicted of.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiU_NmYUy7U&feature=related

Execution:  Tonight at 6.  All net, all channels.  

[Viking]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiU_NmYUy7U&feature=related

Execution:  Tonight at 6.  All net, all channels.   

"Would you like to know more?"

[Nitrogen]

If you want a scary way to go, go for immolation or drowning.  By far the worst.

[seeker_two]

Guillotine....quick, painless, and cheap....and leave the preserved heads on display in criminal courts where they were initially sentenced....

[Viking]

Guillotine....quick, painless, and cheap....and leave the preserved heads on display in criminal courts where they were initially sentenced....

Preserving them is more than they deserve. I say just mount it on a sharp pole, like ye olde dayes. Preferably, they would be mounted close to schools and various problem areas, to remind any potential shithead about the price of failure in getting away with his criminal enterprise...

[Waitone]

Utah has provisions for firing squads as a method of execution.  Last time it was used was Gary Mark Gilmore's execution in the 70's.  It was his choice.

We should be concerned over the psychological well-being of the executioner.  Everything else is irrelevant.

[Zardozimo Oprah Bannedalas]

Guillotine....quick, painless, and cheap....and leave the preserved heads on display in criminal courts where they were initially sentenced....

Absolutely. Give the taxidermists more business, too. 

By far the worst.

Ant mound burial. Woodchipper. Need I continue?

[Viking]

Utah has provisions for firing squads as a method of execution.  Last time it was used was Gary Mark Gilmore's execution in the 70's.  It was his choice.

John Albert Taylor was executed by firing squad in 1996. Utah again. They later banned it as a method of execution.

[Viking]

Absolutely. Give the taxidermists more business, too. 
Ant mound burial. Woodchipper. Need I continue?

Vogon poetry?

[jackdanson]

I don't think firing squads are effective enough... didn't it take the last guy to die by firing squad a few minutes to expire?

I'm against the death penalty in general... I understand the sentiment, but I wouldn't be able to pull the trigger myself, which means I'd be a hypocrite to expect the govt. to do it.  There is just something horrifying about leading a guy down a hall to his death, even if he is evil... life in prison is a worse punishment anyway, imho.