This article was originally published by Matt Agorist at The Free Thought Project.
As the massive human experiment in tyranny, censorship, and fear — otherwise known as 2020 — comes to a close, it just wouldn’t be complete without some government agency exhuming the ghost of despotism’s past. In the cherry on top of the dumpster fire that is 2020, the Justice Department has quietly amended its execution protocols, no longer requiring federal death sentences to be carried out by lethal injection and clearing the way to use other methods like firing squads and poisonous gas.
This news comes on the heels of the fact that Attorney General William Barr restarted federal executions this year after a 17-year hiatus. Despite bipartisan resistance to this measure, the DOJ has executed more Americans in 2020 than they have in the previous five decades.
Apparently, the feds have put so many people to death this year that they are seemingly bored with their methodology and have moved to bring back gas chambers and death by firing squads.
Last month, with very little coverage in the media, the DOJ’s amended rule was published in the Federal Register that allows the U.S. government to conduct executions by lethal injection or use “any other manner prescribed by the law of the state in which the sentence was imposed.”
But fret not, Land of the Free, the changes were done in an ostensible effort to support state’s rights — or something like that.
According to the Associated Press, a Justice Department official — who asked to remain anonymous — said the change was made to account for the fact the Federal Death Penalty Act requires sentences to be carried out in the “in the manner prescribed by the law of the state in which the sentence is imposed,” and some of those states use methods other than lethal injection.
The feds promise not to send convicts to gas chambers or firing squads unless the states allow it.
The official told the AP the federal government “will never execute an inmate by firing squad or electrocution unless the relevant state has itself authorized that method of execution.”
One of those states is Utah, whose Republican-controlled House voted 39-34 in 2015 to resurrect the use of Utah’s firing squads. Proponents of this method of state-sponsored murder claim that being shot to death by a group of marksmen is more humane than lethal injection.
To the contrary, the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center says that a firing squad is not a foolproof method because the inmate could move or shooters could miss the heart, causing a slower, more painful death.
One such case happened in Utah’s territorial days back in 1879 when a firing squad missed Wallace Wilkerson’s heart and it took him 27 minutes to die, according to newspaper accounts.
The real issue at hand, however, capital punishment, seems to be taking a back seat to all of this. For the state to claim the responsibility of justly ending life, it means that the state must never be wrong. Even the most ardent of statists will have to concede that an infallible state is but a terribly written fiction.
John Adams once wrote:
It is more important that innocence should be protected, than it is, that guilt be punished; for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world, that all of them cannot be punished….
When the state is more concerned about how to go about punishing the guilty, than protecting innocence, we have achieved peak oligarchy.
The National Registry of Exonerations at the University of Michigan Law School reported that 2,696 falsely accused prisoners were exonerated since 1989. Some of these people were set to die at the hand of the state for their convictions.
It is no secret that prosecutors will seek the maximum punishment for the maximum charge, and their conviction percentages are in the upper 90’s.
Does that mean that these prosecutors are flawless machines hell-bent on distributing some mythical immaculate justice? Or, does it actually mean that the entire system wishes more to hand out punishments, instead of seeking truth?
It is important to note that this is not a call for crimes to go unpunished, that would be irresponsible. However, the slaughter of innocence is a far more grave thought.
In criminal law, Blackstone’s formulation (also known as Blackstone’s ratio or the Blackstone ratio) is the principle that:
“It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer”
In a perfect system, irrefutable evidence would exist in every conviction. But as the constant flow of articles on this site about cops framing innocent people illustrates, this system is far from perfect.
Until we strive for a more perfect system, the manner in which death is dolled out by the hand of incompetence, is of no significance, other than tyrants pumping their chests about new ways to kill.
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At least these “gas chambers” are real.
We could concievably be liberated, someday, and have our own denialists.
One uncle US Army Bronze Star with V, one friends father Army liberated separate camps. Another friends father was a Polish kid, 15 at the end of the war, Catholic, that survived by putting dead bodies into the ovens. This guy, Mr L always wore a T shirt at the community pool in the 1960s. One time he had it momentarily off and I can tell you that the movie whip mark scars are accurate; he was beaten savagely at one time. His kids never seen the TV show Combat as it and shows / movies depicting war were not on the TV in their home.
Shoot be married for a long time.
I guess they will be bringing out the gentians too.
Look for GUILLOTINES (head-removers) next. Tyrants mistakenly believe GUILLOTINES can be a deterrent to folks like me (skeptical of govt.), they are fast and efficient (50 heads an hour), relatively cheap, and easily deployable. Tyrants will love these things.
Tyrants will soon say “Give me your firearms & forget about the Bill of Rights.” The CONSTITUTION will be forgotten as successive generations are told they may not say the word.
Some Military bases supposed to have these.
lately there seems to be a lot of people expressing that ” This Scamdemic” is the greatest hoax ever foisted upon humanity.
Incorrect
DNA evidence is the greatest hoax ever foisted upon humanity.
but yeah …i agree the foisting was done by the same people.
theorists
A little off topic ,but,wanted to let you guys know that beginning on Saturday, sports stars and “high profiles” will not have to quarantine when arriving in the UK Also,journalists will be exempt.As they say,one rule for the common folk but different rules for the “elite”. As we know,the phony 19 is able to differentiate between us common folk and the elite.Very smart virus it is.I post this here hoping shtfplan.com will print that article soon.Anyone who wants to read it: I saw it on sott.net Thanks guys.
LA Mayor bans “unnecessary” walking. Truly,you cannot make this shit up!! ?
Don’t you love FAKE NEWS? Trigger happy mentally ill leftist the sky is falling type people?
Prisoners are getting a right on how they choose to die. Its as simple as that.
Take a remedial reading course , then read the article again.
It seems a few weeks back they were unable to execute someone because they didn’t have the drug used for the task. The makers of the drug have boycotted or stopped making the drug. So, back to the firing squad. Kinda scary.
This is so the arrest of the Dems and their followers are quickly charged and EXECUTED. I can hardly wait.
lio,
We’ve been hearing about prosecutions for 4 years. Trump has shown zero interest in prosecuting domestic corruption.
The fact Trump presided over taking a large portion of federal accounting dark, to cover the government thrft of trillions, shows that Trump is not our guy. The fact Trump pardoned 5 Wall St megabanks for fraud shows he is not our guy. There’s more. Much, much more.
These changes in execution rules will probably be used against the common citizens. Can you say “Sieg Heil”?
????????????????
You think maybe these firing squads and other means of death might be for us in the future? Germany used them all in WW2. Canada seems to be doing some of the same thing?????
Being married is walking death. I’ve never been married, but I have lots of friends who are. At least 3/4 of married guys I know tell me they hate it, no matter the facade they project otherwise. Look guys, staying single and avoiding marriage and a family is not just a matter of luck, you have to occasionally remind yourself of the freedom and personal empowerment you enjoy. If you’re having problems now, they would only increase in orders of magnitude if you get married. And by the way, don’t take risks, get your vasectomy now, it has saved me twice (both tried to trap me into child support or getting married, both failed of course). I have one sister, she’s married with three kids, I’ll just be the happy fun uncle. I save and spend and invest my money how it’s best for me. I have a beautiful home and piece of property paid for, and all my toys, and I’m still young. I date who I want, I don’t explain myself to anybody ever, and not going to. I do what I want when I want. As soon as a lady causes me a problem or inconvenience she’s gone. No nagging, no lectures, no arguing, no complaining. You married guys can have it. Women are confused, even the smarter ones. They say they are strong, and independent and don’t need a man, or that they hate assertive guys, but the more chauvinistic I am the more they come on to me. After awhile, one can see there’s not much difference in women, only in physical attraction, and all predictable. Why would anyone want to eat hamburger helper every day?
guillotines are next.
I believe that school shooters SHOULD receive death by firing squad, with the stipulation that all members thereof be extremely nearsighted and denied glasses. Videos of said executions should, like holocaust films and nuclear bomb films in the 50s/60s, be shown in classes beginning with high school.
Reality ain’t HALO kids. Figure it out.
One ‘bus op’ has been subsidized, crisis housing, in which homeless undesirables can be crammed into campers, shacks, attics and walk-in closets, given first dibs on sweatshop labor (usually, performed slowly.) Hotels and apt complexes have been retrofitted for wayward womyn and lifelong addicts.
As the downward spiral tends toward private prisons and no-name, mental institutions, on the outskirts, I think, we have a gulag archipelago or underground railroad where dissidents are trafficked.
Sometimes, when there is a field fire, all kinds of strange animals wind up in the street. Or, they wash up on beaches, when there are earthquakes. During a civil emergency, you might be surprised at how many neighbors you really have, living like serfs, in rural tenancy.