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Utah Attorney General Uses Twitter to Announce Executions
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Jesus Diaz | Gizmodo
I know that Twitter is becoming part of everyone's lives, but Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff may be taking it way too far by announcing executions in real time. Three tweets about Ronnie Lee Gardner's execution by firing squad:
A solemn day. Barring a stay by Sup Ct, & with my final nod, Utah will use most extreme power & execute a killer. Mourn his victims. Justice
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.
We will be streaming live my press conference as soon as I'm told Gardner is dead. Watch it at www.attorneygeneral.Utah.gov/live.html
Not only he demonstrates a complete lack of tact and respect, but also gets all mighty self-righteous with the "most extreme power of Utah". But then again, I'm not surprised. Twitter has just become a reflection of the actual world, not any more the refuge of nerds and vain personalities. Everything goes, people, everything goes. [BBC News]
The original version of the story appears here: http://gizmodo.com/5566938/utah-attorney-general-uses-twitter-to-announce-executions
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Comments (27) | Join the Conversation!
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Hominine
June 18, 2010 11:25 AM
So does this reflect the values of that particularly Mormon state one wonders?
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diamondjoe
June 18, 2010 11:44 AM in reply to Hominine
I think this has less to do with Mormons and more to do with power, ego, and the domineering conservative notion of 'justice'.
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deoll
June 18, 2010 12:02 PM
"We will be streaming live my press conference..."
He's getting it set up so next time he can live stream the actual execution. They're still ironing the bugs out. Patience, everyone.
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theorajones
June 18, 2010 12:11 PM
@Markshurtleff WTF is WRONG with you? Were you dropped on your head as a baby? #WTFMarkShurtleff
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CyberDuckie
June 18, 2010 2:14 PM in reply to theorajones
I'm gonna go with his mom drinking large quantities of alcohol while he was still in the womb.
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CityGuy
June 18, 2010 12:12 PM
Well an email to the proper officials-and the press-I could possibly understand. But twitter just seems way too informal and casual for something like a state execution.
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navamske
June 18, 2010 12:34 PM in reply to CityGuy
I agree, but in the right-wing/nutjob mindset, finding fault with this will be interpreted as "having more concern for the executionee than for his victims."
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notyou
June 18, 2010 12:51 PM
What?
Executions should be twittered, live-blogged, youtubed, CSPANed, Hulued, netflixed, podcast, newspapered, torrented, shrink-wrapped and endcapped, and maximum exposured.
Let's not hide who we are.
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ManOutOfTime
June 19, 2010 12:16 PM in reply to notyou
You are right on @notyou. Whether you are for or against -- and I happen to be strongly against capital punishment in principle -- I agree executions should be public. This is just as important as embedded press is in a war zone.
My main beef with the AG is not the tweeting but the blatant politicking, which is a ghoulish abuse of the killer's victims and their loved ones. BUT nothing new there, whether tweeted or barked out in a stump speech, the dead are just campaign props to these people.
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mrCurmudgeon
June 18, 2010 12:51 PM
Whatever happened to the notion of stoic western justice?
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Jack of All Tirades
June 18, 2010 1:53 PM in reply to mrCurmudgeon
Forget Gary Cooper, us Mericans got got torches and pitchforks!
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ShawnATL
June 18, 2010 12:51 PM
Wow. That's just nauseating.
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themanchdynasty
June 18, 2010 1:10 PM
"A murderer was captured this morning and tried today. His sentence: death. Execution tonight at 6! All net, all channels. WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_5UZfwX0ss&feature=player_embedded#!
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AmericanDad
June 18, 2010 1:29 PM
So a firing squad doesn't fit the "unusual" part of "cruel and unusual punishment"?
Only a an estimated that 142 men have been judicially shot in the United States (and the English-speaking territories prior to the US) since 1608 -- excluding executions related to the American Civil War (during which they happened so often and so quickly that there is no record of how many were carried out). Only 3 have did this way in the past 38 years, all in Utah.
Not very common. One might say "unusual."
Ironically, a firing squad execution has been banned by Utah law since 2004, but the law wasn't retroactive and Gardner was convicted prior to passage of the law. I think there are two more inmates in the same situation.
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Michigoose
June 18, 2010 3:30 PM in reply to AmericanDad
Two or three, I can't remember which. Your question about the "humane-ness" of firing squad came up last week (as you can imagine, the execution has been the BIG local story the last couple of weeks) and it turns out the the consensus is that firing squad is the fastest and least painful method of execution in use in the US. Much faster than hanging or the electric chair, less painful and more sure than lethal injection.
But Mark Shurtleff is still an idiot. Always has been, always will be.
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AmericanDad
June 19, 2010 12:29 AM in reply to Michigoose
Yes. I understand that Gardner actually chose the firing squad as his referred method to die.
it just strikes me that, numerically, it qualifies as "unusual."
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ohyeathatsright
June 18, 2010 2:01 PM
RE: Josh Marshall's comment, just what IS Twitter good for?
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CyberDuckie
June 18, 2010 2:15 PM
Can I just say - LUV the image that goes with the article!
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dswx
June 18, 2010 3:15 PM
Since Utah has gone back to the firing squad, it seems only fitting that cowardly Republican (yes, I know that is redundant) Shurtleff should have been the one to do the shooting. Bet his disgusting comments would have been a bit different.
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AmericanDad
June 19, 2010 12:33 AM in reply to dswx
Actually, Utah's not "gone back" to firing squads. This form of execution was outlawed there in 2004, but this guy was one of a small number who had been convicted and sentenced prior to the law passing, and the law was not retroactive.
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SteinL
June 18, 2010 3:28 PM
Twitter has been embraced by officials and politicians who strongly dislike having to meet with "the small people" and who think that twitter lets them press flesh virtually.
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USC Trojan 1
June 18, 2010 3:41 PM
I happen to think Mr. Shurtleff did the right thing.
What's less humane about a speedy "by firing squad" execution over lethal injuction?
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sheerahkahn
June 18, 2010 4:02 PM
I just looked at the post shooting photos of the execution.
5 shots, four hits, which means the followed the standard blank in one of the rifles.
However, what struck me is this...
UTAH, YOU HAVE SHITTY SHOOTERS!
four shots, spaced at about an inch apart across a mans chest, WTF?
That is not an immediate death, that is death by kinetic shock.
This was, without a doubt, on a par with the electric chair fiasco in Florida.
Medieval at best is the only way to describe it.
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chard
June 20, 2010 9:40 PM in reply to sheerahkahn
Poor marksmanship is nothing compared to what kind of sick fucker would sign up to participate in that ceremony?
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sean
June 19, 2010 11:05 AM
I guess we should count the days until some sort of Twitter serial killer haunts the interwebs with banal misspellings...
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pursetrades
June 23, 2010 12:43 AM
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