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Utah Attorney General Tweets Execution Order

Posted by Soulskill on from the internet-over-we-lost dept.

Kilrah_il writes "In an all-time low for Internet use, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff used Twitter to announce to the public his approval of the execution of convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner. 'I just gave the go ahead to Corrections Director to proceed with Gardner's execution. May God grant him the mercy he denied his victims,' the attorney general wrote. The AG's 7,000 followers retweeted the message further on and soon many replied concerning the awfulness of tweeting the execution of a human being. 'Mr. Shurtleff was doing nothing unusual; politicians and news organizations now routinely send out tweets to alert people to the latest developments. But as Twitter users digested endless breaking news flashes alerting them to the death of a man by firing squad in the United States, for some Mr. Shurtleff's remarks stood out from the rest.'"

4 of 556 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Dignity. by Shakrai · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Hanging has more potential for error than the firing squad but I would still take it over lethal injection. If it breaks you neck then it's quite humane -- if it doesn't then it's a rather lousy way to exit the world. Of course the same could be said for the firing squad if the marksmen screw up but the odds of four men all missing the kill zone with rifles at 30 feet (or whatever laughably short distance is used) is pretty low.

    --
    I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
    We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
  2. Re:whoopie by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    or for that matter, "thou shalt not kill"?

    The word "kill" is widely held to be a mistranslation, to my understanding. The more proper translation would be "murder", which means that certain forms of killing may or may not be allowed by such a statement.

    --
    "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
  3. Re:whoopie by toadlife · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Many, including myself, consider the death penalty to be state-sponsored murder.

    --
    I don't always use unix-like operating systems; but when I do, I prefer FreeBSD.
  4. Re:So ... by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Wow, if you are worried about politicians trying to avoid real interaction with the people, you've missed the boat. Politics haven't been like that since (at least) the 1968 democratic national convention. Republicans saw how badly it went and scripted every word of their convention a month or so later. If politicians think there is potential for a shoe being thrown, they will generally avoid the event. And wisely so. And I'm sure if you look back farther, you will find it is not a new thing.

    Seriously, get your worries in perspective.

    --
    Qxe4