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Huckleberries Online

Utah Execution: Needle Or Firing Squad?

Convicted murderer Ronnie Gardner, center, sits with his defense team,  Andrew Parnes, right, and Megan Moriarty in Judge Robin Reese's courtroom at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City, Utah on  Friday, April 23,  2010. Judge Reese is being asked to issue a warrant setting an execution date for Gardner.  Under state law Gardner, 49, would be allowed to decide whether he would be killed by lethal injection or be shot by a five-man team of executioners firing from a set of matched rifles, a rarely used relic that harkens back to Utah's territorial history. (Francisco Kjolseth / The Salt Lake Tribune, Pool)
Convicted murderer Ronnie Gardner, center, sits with his defense team, Andrew Parnes, right, and Megan Moriarty in Judge Robin Reese's courtroom at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City, Utah on Friday, April 23, 2010. Judge Reese is being asked to issue a warrant setting an execution date for Gardner. Under state law Gardner, 49, would be allowed to decide whether he would be killed by lethal injection or be shot by a five-man team of executioners firing from a set of matched rifles, a rarely used relic that harkens back to Utah's territorial history. (Francisco Kjolseth / The Salt Lake Tribune, Pool)

Convicted murderer Ronnie Gardner, center, sits with his defense team, Andrew Parnes, right, and Megan Moriarty in Judge Robin Reese's courtroom at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City, Utah on Friday. Judge Reese is being asked to issue a warrant setting an execution date for Gardner. Under state law Gardner, 49, would be allowed to decide whether he would be killed by lethal injection or be shot by a five-man team of executioners firing from a set of matched rifles, a rarely used relic that harkens back to Utah's territorial history. (AP Photo/Francisco Kjolseth, Pool)

Question: If you were facing the executioner, would you pick lethal injection or a firing squad? Or some other means of execution?



D.F. Oliveria
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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