"By executing Brad Sigmon, South Carolina has also executed the possibility of redemption," said one critic. "Our state is declaring that no matter what you do to make up for your wrongdoing, we reserve the right to kill you."
No one is arguing it’s perfect or “painless”, but in light of high-profile botched executions where the convict is unintentionally(?) tortured for hours before they died it seems to be the better option.
Multiple people targeting your brain and heart… It will be worse to watch and you might cause psychological damage to anyone watching or taking part… but at least you won’t suffer for long.
EDIT:
and stomach
As I mentioned in another comment, they aim for the heart, from 15 feet (4.5 meters) away. And there’s usually at least 3 shooters, so even if multiple people are abysmally bad marksmen, no one’s dying slowly from a gut shot…
They don’t aim at the head. They aim at the heart. And not every rifle has a live round so no one knows who fired the killing shot. At least that’s how it was traditionally done.
You’re right, I’ve since read the article and they aimed for the heart. Death was pronounced within 3 minutes of the shots. But I don’t think this particular execution used the “random bullet and 2 blanks” method, or at least that’s not a detail mentioned in the article:
“He chose the firing squad knowing that three bullets would shatter his bones and destroy his heart,” said King. “But that was the only choice he had, after the state’s three executions by lethal injection inflicted prolonged and potentially torturous deaths on men he loved like brothers.”
No one is arguing it’s perfect or “painless”, but in light of high-profile botched executions where the convict is unintentionally(?) tortured for hours before they died it seems to be the better option.
Multiple people targeting your brain and heart… It will be worse to watch and you might cause psychological damage to anyone watching or taking part… but at least you won’t suffer for long.
EDIT:
As I mentioned in another comment, they aim for the heart, from 15 feet (4.5 meters) away. And there’s usually at least 3 shooters, so even if multiple people are abysmally bad marksmen, no one’s dying slowly from a gut shot…
They don’t aim at the head. They aim at the heart. And not every rifle has a live round so no one knows who fired the killing shot. At least that’s how it was traditionally done.
You’re right, I’ve since read the article and they aimed for the heart. Death was pronounced within 3 minutes of the shots. But I don’t think this particular execution used the “random bullet and 2 blanks” method, or at least that’s not a detail mentioned in the article: