The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Bring Back the Firing Squad

Posted on | July 24, 2014 | 71 Comments

Joseph R. Wood III was 30 when he murdered his ex-girlfriend, Debbie Dietz, 29, and her father, Gene Dietz, 55, in Tucson in 1989. Because our legal system has been encumbered by federal court concessions to the “rights” of murderers, it took 25 years to impose justice on this cowardly hateful killer. Also, because of concessions to the Murderers’ Rights Movement, effective methods of capital punishment — the noose, the firing squad, the gas chamber, the electric chair — have been outlawed, replaced by lethal injection drugs, so that those who callously take human life can be dispatched in a “humane” manner. Except when it doesn’t work that way:

A condemned Arizona inmate gasped for more than an hour and a half during his execution Wednesday before he died in an episode sure to add to the scrutiny surrounding the death penalty in the U.S.
Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne’s office said Joseph Rudolph Wood was pronounced dead at 3:49 p.m., one hour and 57 minutes after the execution started. . . .
Family members of Wood’s victims said they had no problems with the way the execution was carried out.
“This man conducted a horrifying murder and you guys are going, ‘let’s worry about the drugs,'” said Richard Brown, the brother-in-law of Debbie Dietz, who was 29 when she was killed in 1989. “Why didn’t they give him a bullet? Why didn’t we give him Drano?”

Shoot ’em. It was good enough for Gary Gilmore.

UPDATE: Did Joseph Wood deserve a “humane” death?

Wood, who was said to have assaulted Debbie during their relationship, walked into Dietz and Sons Auto Paint and Body Shop and shot 55-year-old Gene in the chest.
Then, as a desperate Debbie tried to phone for help, Wood grabbed her round the neck.
The Arizona Daily Star reports that witnesses heard him tell his her “I told you I was going to do it. I love you. I have to kill you, b****” before also shooting the 29-year-old fatally in the chest.
When police arrived Wood turned his gun on officers, prompting them to open fire and shoot him nine times.

Too bad the cops didn’t finish him off then and there.

 

Category: Arizona, Crime

Comments

71 Responses to “Bring Back the Firing Squad”

  1. K-Bob
    July 24th, 2014 @ 3:53 pm

    It’s the only deterrent with a 100% success rate.

  2. K-Bob
    July 24th, 2014 @ 3:55 pm

    Housing a prisoner for thirty to fifty years is not cheap, though. Especially the ones who are sent to maximum security prisons.

  3. laura_PH
    July 24th, 2014 @ 4:01 pm

    Tomayto, tomahto, amirite?

  4. Bozikek
    July 24th, 2014 @ 4:42 pm

    There is more factors involved then the deterrence of the death penalty. This should be obvious.

  5. Ghost
    July 24th, 2014 @ 4:43 pm

    The only reason I’m against the death penalty is because I don’t trust the government that is this incompetent to get it right more often than not. But if they are going to do it, it needs to be done quickly and humanely, otherwise, we’re no better than the monsters we are ridding ourselves of. It’s not about what he deserves as a monster; it’s about us not becoming monsters in the process.

  6. Escher's House
    July 24th, 2014 @ 5:27 pm

    Morphine would be a better and quicker choice.

  7. Escher's House
    July 24th, 2014 @ 5:28 pm

    I think I explained the PR problem with the bullet to the head.

  8. Escher's House
    July 24th, 2014 @ 5:29 pm

    A false appeal to progress.

  9. DeadMessenger
    July 24th, 2014 @ 5:50 pm

    Then perhaps consistency and speed have an effect it.

  10. The Daley Gator | A thought on “humane” capital punishment- Bullets are cheap
    July 24th, 2014 @ 7:07 pm

    […] If we are worried about how we execute convicted murderers, and the cost of putting these cretins out of our misery, here is a thought. Buy some handguns, buy some bullets, problem solved […]

  11. Dana
    July 24th, 2014 @ 7:10 pm

    I am opposed to capital punishment because while I recognize that there are times when killing is necessary — self-defense, or in war — execution does not qualify as a necessity. If we can execute a condemned man without his consent, he is, by definition, helpless, and is therefore not an imminent threat or danger to anyone. Further, we have an alternative to execution, life in prison without parole, which is by far the more common sentence, and having that alternative also makes execution unnecessary.

    We should not kill when there is no need to kill, and that holds from conception through natural death. The arguments we have for being pro-life when it comes to abortion hold just as validly when it comes to capital punishment.

    And, of course, I am Catholic! You should be, too!

  12. Wombat_socho
    July 24th, 2014 @ 7:33 pm

    Much like your posting. Bye now.

  13. Bob Belvedere
    July 24th, 2014 @ 7:58 pm

    #3: It’s a troll.

  14. Bob Belvedere
    July 24th, 2014 @ 7:59 pm

    Nice to have you back doing The Lord’s Work, Z.

  15. Bob Belvedere
    July 24th, 2014 @ 8:04 pm

    Oh. RKae, The Jarrett Junto has been working on that for six years now.

    http://thecampofthesaints.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/the-jarrett-junto-001f-275×166.jpg

  16. Bob Belvedere
    July 24th, 2014 @ 8:04 pm

    Thank you, Fair Wombaticus.

  17. Bob Belvedere
    July 24th, 2014 @ 8:06 pm

    I am against the Firing Squad because that is an honor reserved for military men.

    Hanging is the best for murderers because you crap and urinate on yourself as you die. Murderers deserve humiliation.

  18. Bob Belvedere
    July 24th, 2014 @ 8:09 pm

    I agree on the public executions.

  19. Quartermaster
    July 24th, 2014 @ 8:24 pm

    A “noodle” doesn’t require a squad, just one barrel. Stalin’s Comrade Blotkhin became quite good at it.

  20. Adriane
    July 25th, 2014 @ 12:07 am

    If we can execute a condemned man without his consent, he is, by definition, helpless, and is therefore not an imminent threat or danger to anyone.

    If all prisoners were in solitary confinement, this might be a true statement. However, they are not, and it is not.

    From behind bars, men (and while women are vicious, I’ve never read of one who..) have ordered the contract killing of witnesses, and/or people who annoy them in general.

  21. ZZZZZZZZ
    July 25th, 2014 @ 12:36 am

    You’re welcome!

    zzzzzzzzzz…..