The image of the blind-folded prisoner smoking his last cigarette as he stands before a firing squad is stamped in popular culture.
Perhaps the most lauded novel in Latin American history — "One Hundred Years of Solitude" — begins with a soldier before a firing squad. Dozens of movies trade on the scene. For writers, painters and playwrights, firing squads are a short-cut to high drama and passion.
And that is the problem. Taking a life should never be a spectacle.
Utah's Sentencing Commission wants to see the firing squad eliminated. We've taken such a position in the past and take it again now.
Utah is the only state in the nation that still allows condemned prisoners to select the firing squad as an option. And one suspects many have chosen it in order to go out with a blaze of glory.
Inmates, it seems, watch movies, too.
That is why Utah needs to abandon the practice. There was a time when executions were meant to be public happenings. The public hanging and firing squad were society's tools for driving home lessons about the consequences of evil. But such spectacles no longer pack such a punch. Today, society sees an execution as a solemn affair where a sober community carries out its grim duty. Selecting marksmen for the firing squad, deciding who will get real bullets, practicing to the bark of commands should all be relegated to the dust bin of history.
Traditionally, the firing squad was used to execute spies in time of war. It is historically considered an honorable way to die. War criminals and others are hanged, since they are considered unworthy to stand before a line of rifles. Surprisingly, since 1600 only 350 people have been officially executed by firing squad in America.
Not so surprisingly, 39 of those were executed in Utah, with Gary Gilmore's execution in 1977 standing out in high relief.
Gilmore's execution by firing squad, in fact, should serve as exhibit "A" for doing away with the practice. All the lore and legend that surrounded that event, including Gilmore's last words, "Let's do it," gave the man the unearned reputation of a legend. He became Jesse James.
The truth is, he was a common criminal who took an innocent life. His death should not have had the air of a celebration.
Doing away with the firing squad would bring perspective to capital punishment without damaging justice. The time is past for executed prisoners to go out in a blaze of glory. They should go out quietly, as society comforts their victims.