Less Pain during Execution of Death Sentence – Convicted Person Choosing Bullets over Lethal Injection

Colette R. Brunschwig

Last Saturday (April 24, 2010), Nate Carlisle and Pamela Manson (The Salt Lake Tribune) wrote an article entitled "Death row inmate Gardener: 'I would like the firing squad, please.'" I would like to quote a part of it which is particularly relevant to tactile-kinesthetic law, a branch of multisensory law:

 “Shackled at his ankles and wrists and wearing an orange jump suit, Ronnie Lee Gardner leaned forward in his chair Friday and uttered seven words that will place Utah in the international spotlight. ‘I would like the firing squad, please,’ Gardner said, his voice choking up. Choosing bullets over lethal injection may have nothing to do with making headlines for Utah -- the first state to execute a killer after the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 and the only to allow inmates to die by firing squad. Gardner's cousin, Jerry Hainsworth, said Gardner told him a few years ago: ‘I'd rather do it that way because I've been shot a bunch of times.’ […]After hearing Gardner's request, 3rd District Court Judge Robin Reese on Friday signed a death warrant setting his execution date for June 18. The judge rejected Gardner's latest appeal of his 1985 death sentence minutes earlier, leaving a Utah Supreme Court appeal or a commutation from the Utah Board of Pardons as Gardner's only chances to avoid death.”

(For further information, see http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_14945392)

The blog Sentencing Law and Policy (April 24, 2010) comments on Nate Carlisle's and Pamela Manson's article as follows: “Unless and until a state eliminates the death penalty altogether, it seems to me that letting a condemned man selected [sic] the method for his execution is more humane (and respectful of his continuing autonomy) that is forcing him to be executed [sic] a particular way. In addition, given all the evidence developed by the defense bar that a three-drug lethal injection protocol can be botched in a manner which can be torturous for the condemned, this choice by Gardner seems sound and sensible in light of what we have come to learn about his other execution option.”

(For further information, see http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2010/04/shouldnt-we-celebrate-condemns-request-that-he-would-like-the-firing-squad-please-.html)

What strikes me in the blog’s comment is that its author considers the condemned person‘s physical sensations, more precisely, how the convicted might perceive his own body, namely his pain (nociception) during the execution of the death sentence. That is exactly the area where tactile-kinesthetic law is involved. Not only does this branch of multisensory law deal with technology-mediated uni- and multisensory legal communication, but it also focusses on body-mediated uni- and multisensory legal (self-)communication. By "legal," I also mean "legally relevant."

From a therapeutic jurisprudence standpoint, an approach with which multisensory law has interfaces, the question needs to be raised whether Ronnie Lee Gardner has chosen to be shot by a firing squad in order not to put the blame on anyone for his own death. With this "procedure", it is not possible to determine which bullet from whom was responsible for the killing. This is common knowledge. Should this be the case, Ronnie Lee Gardner would have acted with empathy caring for the wellbeing of the legal actors having to execute the death sentence on June 18, 2010.

(For further information about therapeutic jurisprudence, see http://www.law.arizona.edu/depts/upr-intj/)

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