Trump pushing through dozens of last minute policy changes - including use of firing squads

[babylonsister]

Trump pushing through dozens of last minute policy changes – including use of firing squads
Five more federal executions are scheduled in the weeks before Joe Biden enters the White House
Alex Woodward


Donald Trump has sought fast-track authorisation for several administration-wide policy changes before he leaves the White House in January, including the use of firing squads and electrocutions in federal executions, according to a report from ProPublica.

The Department of Justice entered a proposed rule change into the federal register in August. It cleared a White House review earlier this month, and the president could authorise the policy before he leaves office.

Federal executions are typically carried about by lethal injection, unless a judge orders a person to death by other means.

According to the proposed rule change, the administration claims that “death by firing squad and death by electrocution do not violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment”.

The proposal argues: “In recent US Supreme Court litigation involving Eighth Amendment challenges to execution by lethal injection, nitrogen hypoxia and firing squad have been identified as potential alternative methods of execution, including by prisoners themselves, that might – or even must– be used instead of lethal injection, in particular because those methods allegedly carry a lesser risk of pain."

more...

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-death-penalty-firing-squads-b1761933.html

[procon]

1. Trump is a sick and twisted bastard.

What sort of insane person thinks of different methods to kill someone?

[babylonsister]

6. I read this and my immediate thought was Stephen Miller is behind it.

I have no proof, but it sounds like it'd be in his wheelhouse.

[Maru Kitteh]

14. Don't easily dismiss Trump's preoccupation with violence and gore. He has

been jealous to his core of dictators for many reasons, one of the foremost being their power to have humans jailed, tortured and killed in the depraved manner of their choosing.

[moondust]

2. Are the lethal drugs too hard to find?

Is this so they won't have to rely on drug companies that may decide to stop providing their drugs for executions? I vaguely remember that being a problem for executioners in the past.

[GoCubsGo]

11. The federal government stopped executing people 17 years ago.

The only started again under this sadistic motherfucking waste of skin. He wants firing squads because they hurt more. It's so fucking sick.

[moondust]

18. States were still using drugs

more recently. Seems like it was Oklahoma and maybe others having trouble getting drugs for executions.

[GoCubsGo]

20. I don't think this is about being unable to get drugs, though.

I think Trump just loves the idea of killing people with a firing squad.

[moondust]

21. I suppose he and the "pro-lifers"

would much prefer to see a really big execution show! Maybe they want to film it and share it on Twitter, Newsmax, and at church services. Lethal injections are just so quiet and boring.

[dutch777]

3. Probably too simplistic but...

...couldn't Biden just issue an Exec Order Day One that says anything done for policy change or Exec Order prior to this date back X years is hereby rescinded and defaults to prior rules/policy? i am pretty sure the professionals in most departments that weren't appointed by Trump are kind of anticipating/hoping for this.

[struggle4progress]

4. This will be remembered as his tantrum

[Karadeniz]

5. Moral monster...although the firing squad, for Trump, doesn't sound bad.

[Demsrule86]

7. He can do what he wants. Biden will erase Trump.

[Squinch]

8. Firing squads are what he released to make the headlines. What is the headline cover for?

I guarantee it's much worse.

Maybe it's the disgusting pardon of treasonous Mike Flynn. Maybe something else.

[Fyrefox]

9. Firing squads, nothing pleases the gun lobby more!

They could probably execute people by making them listen to Trump's speeches or MAGA rallies, but that would be considered "cruel and unusual" punishment...

[GoCubsGo]

10. As long as he and ihis fellow seditionists are the first to go in front of one,

I'm good with it. We can end them after that.

I cannot wait until we are rid of that sadistic sack of shit.

[Klaralven]

12. In Utah, the condemned individual has the choice of lethal injection or firing squad

The last person executed in Utah in 2010 chose firing squad.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_executed_in_Utah

[Buckeyeblue]

13. I still think firing squad would be preferable to being put down like the family pet

Probably less painful and quicker.

[Klaralven]

17. Definitely quicker, but I doubt that firing squad is less painful than lethal injection

The first step in lethal injection is a powerful anesthetic to render the condemned unconscious. After that come muscle relaxants and a drug to stop electrical conduction in the heart.

Having been "put under" by anesthesiologists a few times, I think there is no pain besides the usual needle stick to insert the IV line.

[LiberalFighter]

15. So it could be used on Stephen Miller any other corrupt official in Trump admin?

[Mike 03]

16. Are there really still electric chairs in our country? Haven't most

Departments of Corrections gotten rid of those, as well as gas chambers, etc...?

[DFW]

19. In that case

How soon will it be before some newspapers start to call Trump "Nikolai II" and Ivanka "Anastasia?"