A better method of execution.

I understand that Wyoming Senator Bruce Burns is proposing firing squads for execution.  His reasoning is:

"The state of Wyoming doesn't have a gas chamber currently, an operating gas chamber, so the procedure and expense to build one would be impractical to me," said Burns, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"I consider frankly the gas chamber to be cruel and unusual, so I went with firing squad because they also have it in Utah," Burns said. He's introduced the bill for consideration in the legislative session that starts Feb. 10 in Cheyenne.

"One of the reasons I chose firing squad as opposed to any other form of execution is because frankly it's one of the cheapest for the state," Burns said. "The expense of building a gas chamber I think would be prohibitive when you consider how many people would be executed by it, and even the cost of gallows."

Actually, the guillotine is a much less expensive and cost effective method of execution. It has the additional deterrent value of being able to stick the criminal's head on a pole as a warning to others not to commit a crime. It was used in Europe well into the 20th century, which means that it may not fall under the constitutional prohibition on "cruel and unusual punishments".

It's a win-win!

After all, see how well it worked after the French Revolution!

Gun Crime Italian Style

The Telegraph reports on a gruesome murder which took place in the north of Italy.

Alberto Arrighi, 40, allegedly murdered Giacomo Brambilla in the back of his gun shop in the town of Como in northern Italy during an argument over a 100,000 euro debt.

He then reportedly cut off his victim's head and tried to incinerate it in a pizza oven at a pizzeria owned by his father-in-law.

That night he loaded the headless body into his car and drove 150 kilometres away from Como, dumping the corpse in a river near the town of Domodossola, in the Piedmont region, near the border with Switzerland.

The alarm was raised by the victim's girlfriend when he failed to return home from his meeting with Arrighi on Monday.

She called the police who went to the gun shop and found blood stains on the floor and evidence that there had been an attempt to clean it off with bleach.

Arrighi, who was arrested, was reportedly struggling to pay back money he had borrowed from Mr Brambilla, a businessman who owned several petrol stations in the Como area.

"The whole thing was an act of momentary madness, the result of some sort of financial dispute between the two men," said a lawyer acting for Arrighi.

Corriere della Sera said the crime was a "tale of blood and money" reminiscent of an Edgar Allan Poe horror story.

The Italian language video of a television news report makes something clear that I thought was ambiguous in the Telegraph report. It was the killer who owned the gun shop, not the victim. It's referred to as "famous" or "historical," they say "una storica armeria." They also say the debt was 200,000 euros.




What's your opinion? What do you think he used to behead Brambilla? If he'd been to Las Vegas recently he might have picked up one of these nifty items. But as other have mentioned, just about anything will do if you're determined enough. But why do you think he did it? If it's to disguise the identity of the victim, you have to take the hands too, don't you?

Please leave a comment.

Beheadings in Mexico

Beheadings in Mexico have become the newest means of communicating the old message, "Don't mess with us." The Washington Post reports that not only drug cartels are using this extreme method but also the police. The latest case is a man who shot his mother and killed the three police officers who responded to the shooting.

Fabian Ramirez's head was found at a highway intersection in Iguala, a town southwest of Mexico City, according to a statement from the Guerrero state Public Safety department.

A message was found nearby: "This is what happens to all those who kill a police officer or a soldier."

It was reported that Mr. Ramirez had been arrested but four armed men broke into the jail and took him away by force. The four men were dressed in black and had lettering on their clothes identifying them as agents of Mexico's Federal Investigative Agency, the statement said.

I don't know what's more frightening, the police acting like that or what's happening in Tijuana.

Nine men were found decapitated in Tijuana over the weekend. Six more people were found dead in the border city Tuesday, including a woman stuffed in a suitcase and a man found stabbed to death next to her. That brought Tijuana's homicide toll to 43 over four days.

What do you think? Are the folks down Mexico way so much more violent than we are? It sounds like just over the border it's total chaos. Does this mean that we're not doing so badly after all? Does it mean those wishing to close the borders have a good point?

How does this situation impact upon our never-ending discussions about arming the good guys and thereby minimizing crime? Aren't the people in Mexico armed? Are there gun control laws in Mexico to blame for all this?

Please leave us a comment with your opinion or observations.