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News & ArtsFriday, June 18, 2010
Teh Internets Twittered to Death
Posted by Cienna Madrid on Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 11:27 AM
Today, Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by firing squad after being convicted of shooting Utah attorney Michael J. Burdell in the head in 1985. Gardner is the first person to be executed by firing squad in 14 years.
Regardless of how you feel about capital punishment, Twittering someone's execution is a bit creepy, no?
2
Well, the last guy that died by firing squad also coined Nike's slogan with his last words. Maybe a firing squad makes people creative.
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Makes sense to me. It hearkens back to a time when execution was a form of entertainment. It's only a matter of minutes before they start live streaming this stuff. Yet another sign of the dark ages to come.
5
It just underscores the cavalier attitude some people have to state sponsored murder. Not that it should be outcome determinative, but the victim's family didn't want this guy killed. It would be cheaper just to have locked up this bastard for the rest of his life, instead of endless appeals (which are necessary because folks are sometimes found innocent or not eligible for the death penalty for some other very good reasons). I say life in prison with no chance of parole for 1st degree murderers--nothing less and nothing more!
9
Considering that people use twitter for announcing everything else, including their bowel movements, this should come as no surprise.
@6, Interesting enough, Washington is one of only two states that still uses the gallows, although it has been a while.
@6, Interesting enough, Washington is one of only two states that still uses the gallows, although it has been a while.
10
You guys are worried about Tweeting someone's excecution? Shit, I'm shocked it wasn't a pay per view event pumped into every chuch in Utah.
SHOUT GLORY!! We killed for JEEESSSSSUSSSSS!!
SHOUT GLORY!! We killed for JEEESSSSSUSSSSS!!
11
Regardless of the mode of transmission, I like the pithy line "May God grant him the mercy he denied his victims." My feelings on capital punishment have changed since I stood vigil in the dark as a law student at Point of the Mountain when Gary Gilmore was executed. While it should be very rare, and it is never a deterent, I think some dark souls just need to be returned. One of the shooters at the Gilmore execution called it "like sending a defective product back to the manufacturer."
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@10
Given the amount of time the Utah news stations spent on this debacle, it essentially was pumped into every church/home in Utah. And the one that spent the most time on it? None other than the church-owned Channel 5. And AG Shurtleff, despite being a good Mo, has never been known for compassion, tact, or common sense.
I love the hypocrisy here. Abortion is bad and they have to "scrub" the Hollywood movies, but capital punishment is good and part of the family entertainment. Health care is a waste of taxpayer dollars, but the costs of the death penalty (Gardner had HOW MANY appeals?) are well worth every taxpayer dollar.
Whatever.
Given the amount of time the Utah news stations spent on this debacle, it essentially was pumped into every church/home in Utah. And the one that spent the most time on it? None other than the church-owned Channel 5. And AG Shurtleff, despite being a good Mo, has never been known for compassion, tact, or common sense.
I love the hypocrisy here. Abortion is bad and they have to "scrub" the Hollywood movies, but capital punishment is good and part of the family entertainment. Health care is a waste of taxpayer dollars, but the costs of the death penalty (Gardner had HOW MANY appeals?) are well worth every taxpayer dollar.
Whatever.
14
I had to explain to my abhorred friend, born and raised in Canada, how this event encapsulated so much of what distinguishes the U.S. from any other nation-state: state punishment by death (in this case, the rare and antediluvian firing squad); navel-gazing (Twitter, an American invention); and fleeting fame (à la Warhol, a Pgh'r).
While I'm sure some Yanks will beam at this unique distinction, most people elsewhere are a bit flabbergasted. Given how I grew up in the Death Penalty Capital of the World (look it up), nothing shocks me anymore. I think what's harder than enforcing capital punishment is the civil restraint in removing it from the books. That takes intense civic discipline — a discipline still lacking in the U.S.
And, well, chalk this up to probably the 123rd reason on my descending list why it is nice to reside elsewhere now.
While I'm sure some Yanks will beam at this unique distinction, most people elsewhere are a bit flabbergasted. Given how I grew up in the Death Penalty Capital of the World (look it up), nothing shocks me anymore. I think what's harder than enforcing capital punishment is the civil restraint in removing it from the books. That takes intense civic discipline — a discipline still lacking in the U.S.
And, well, chalk this up to probably the 123rd reason on my descending list why it is nice to reside elsewhere now.
15
@12:
In the nation-state sense, this dissonance is emblematic of a state's reluctance to endow full responsibility and trust to its citizenry — selective nannying, in other words.
I love the hypocrisy here. Abortion is bad and they have to "scrub" the Hollywood movies, but capital punishment is good and part of the family entertainment. Health care is a waste of taxpayer dollars, but the costs of the death penalty (Gardner had HOW MANY appeals?) are well worth every taxpayer dollar.
In the nation-state sense, this dissonance is emblematic of a state's reluctance to endow full responsibility and trust to its citizenry — selective nannying, in other words.
16
Obviously, public executions result in a lower murder rate.
which must be why the USA has the highest murder rate in the world ...
EPIC FAIL.
which must be why the USA has the highest murder rate in the world ...
EPIC FAIL.
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@13- I guess I should have written "inspired the nike slogan" instead of coining. The ad agency, Wieden & Kennedy, liked the "do it" part of Gilmore's last words and thought a slight tweaking would make a good slogan for athletic gear.
20
How you could hear someone utter such a thing, and then proceed to count it as a point in favor of capital punishment, is a fact utterly beyond my comprehension.
One of the shooters at the Gilmore execution called it "like sending a defective product back to the manufacturer."
How you could hear someone utter such a thing, and then proceed to count it as a point in favor of capital punishment, is a fact utterly beyond my comprehension.
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@20, because some of us have little pity for those who murder. I don't. I apologize if that makes me seem like a bad person, but my sympathy for people who tear families and friends apart is nil. I don't have sympathy to waste on those who willfully hurt and murder.
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Fine, so long as you don't lie to yourself about capital punishment actually doing any good, Leslie N. It doesn't even make the loved ones of the victim feel better, even though they (wrongly) believe it will.
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@ 16
Murders (per capita) (most recent) by country
# 1 Colombia: 0.617847 per 1,000 people
# 2 South Africa: 0.496008 per 1,000 people
# 3 Jamaica: 0.324196 per 1,000 people
# 4 Venezuela: 0.316138 per 1,000 people
# 5 Russia: 0.201534 per 1,000 people
# 6 Mexico: 0.130213 per 1,000 people
# 7 Estonia: 0.107277 per 1,000 people
# 8 Latvia: 0.10393 per 1,000 people
# 9 Lithuania: 0.102863 per 1,000 people
# 10 Belarus: 0.0983495 per 1,000 people
# 11 Ukraine: 0.094006 per 1,000 people
# 12 Papua New Guinea: 0.0838593 per 1,000
# 13 Kyrgyzstan: 0.0802565 per 1,000 people
# 14 Thailand: 0.0800798 per 1,000 people
# 15 Moldova: 0.0781145 per 1,000 people
# 16 Zimbabwe: 0.0749938 per 1,000 people
# 17 Seychelles: 0.0739025 per 1,000 people
# 18 Zambia: 0.070769 per 1,000 people
# 19 Costa Rica: 0.061006 per 1,000 people
# 20 Poland: 0.0562789 per 1,000 people
# 21 Georgia: 0.0511011 per 1,000 people
# 22 Uruguay: 0.045082 per 1,000 people
# 23 Bulgaria: 0.0445638 per 1,000 people
# 24 United States: 0.042802 per 1,000 people
thats not counting the 3rd world shitholes unable to grasp the concept of reporting a murder rate.
IDIOT
Murders (per capita) (most recent) by country
# 1 Colombia: 0.617847 per 1,000 people
# 2 South Africa: 0.496008 per 1,000 people
# 3 Jamaica: 0.324196 per 1,000 people
# 4 Venezuela: 0.316138 per 1,000 people
# 5 Russia: 0.201534 per 1,000 people
# 6 Mexico: 0.130213 per 1,000 people
# 7 Estonia: 0.107277 per 1,000 people
# 8 Latvia: 0.10393 per 1,000 people
# 9 Lithuania: 0.102863 per 1,000 people
# 10 Belarus: 0.0983495 per 1,000 people
# 11 Ukraine: 0.094006 per 1,000 people
# 12 Papua New Guinea: 0.0838593 per 1,000
# 13 Kyrgyzstan: 0.0802565 per 1,000 people
# 14 Thailand: 0.0800798 per 1,000 people
# 15 Moldova: 0.0781145 per 1,000 people
# 16 Zimbabwe: 0.0749938 per 1,000 people
# 17 Seychelles: 0.0739025 per 1,000 people
# 18 Zambia: 0.070769 per 1,000 people
# 19 Costa Rica: 0.061006 per 1,000 people
# 20 Poland: 0.0562789 per 1,000 people
# 21 Georgia: 0.0511011 per 1,000 people
# 22 Uruguay: 0.045082 per 1,000 people
# 23 Bulgaria: 0.0445638 per 1,000 people
# 24 United States: 0.042802 per 1,000 people
thats not counting the 3rd world shitholes unable to grasp the concept of reporting a murder rate.
IDIOT
24
@14, don't forget that some US states eliminated the death penalty long before Canada. In particular, Michigan has it beat by 130 years (1976 vs 1846). Already in disfavor by 1906, Minnesota's death penalty ended after the botched hanging of a man who killed his gay lover.
Washington, Idaho, and Montana are the only three states that border Canada that still have the death penalty.
Washington, Idaho, and Montana are the only three states that border Canada that still have the death penalty.
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