9th Circuit judge causing a stir after advocating for firing squad, guillotine executions

A Ninth Circuit Appeals judge’s controversial comments are causing a stir after his recent interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes.

As argument over executions in Arkansas rages on Judge Alex Kozinski, in an interview with CBS set to air Sunday, said firing squads and guillotines should come back in style.

The Daily News reports the controversial judge said conducting lethal injections is a sham that masks the fact people are getting killed.

“The use of lethal injection is the way of lying to ourselves, to make it look like executions are peaceful, benign … like going to sleep,” said Kozinski, who isn’t involved in the Arkansas proceedings. “And they’re not. They’re brutal things.”

Kozinski tells CBS he believes the act should match the punishment.

The Daily News reports when CBS reporter Lesley Stahl mentions that Kozinski favors death by firing squad, the longtime justice jibes: “Never fails.”

Stahl brings up his support of the guillotine — the late 18th century device that chops off the head.

“Well, you know, it’s 100 percent effective,” Kozinski said of the device made famous for beheading aristocrats during the French Revolution. “And it leaves no doubt that what we are doing is a violent thing. If we as a society are willing to take away human life, we should be willing to watch it.”

The Daily News reports executions aren’t the first hot topic for Kozinski.

He wrote a dissent against the ninth circuit’s decision to block President Trump’s first immigration pause on a handful of Muslim-majority countries.

The Daily News reports Kozinski’s opinion lambasted the court for citing Trump’s campaign statements promising a Muslim ban.

“This St. Bernard is being wagged by a flea on its tail,” Kozinski wrote.

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