I'm pretty sure the only thing that could have made Utah's execution by firing squad of convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner more fucking awesome was Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff tweeting out news of the event.
"I just gave the go ahead to Corrections Director to proceed with Gardner's execution. May God grant him the mercy he denied his victims."
That tweet was followed shortly thereafter by: "We will be streaming live my press conference as soon as I'm told Gardner is dead. Watch it at www.attorneygeneral.Utah.gov/live.html."
Jesus.
I'm not inherently against the idea of using Twitter, or any other technology, to convey information about grave events. Particularly in a crisis—the aftermath of a natural disaster, say—the capability to send and share information quickly can be invaluable, can be life-saving.
But, you know, something about reducing an announcement about the decision to end another human being's life to 140 characters, and follow it up with an advertisement for a political event, strikes me as not being at all in the same conceptual galaxy.
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