Utah AG Offers Execution Play-By-Play On Twitter

 
That's right... on Twitter. Here are Mark Shurtleff's three tweets, as provided by TPMLiveWire at the link above:

A solemn day. Barring a stay by Sup Ct, & with my final nod, Utah will use most extreme power & execute a killer. Mourn his victims. Justice

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.

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

Oh, yeah, now that serves a purpose. If nothing else, it labels AG Shurtleff as one of the most self-righteous SOBs in the nation. But it's worse than self-righteousness or even self-promotion: Shurtleff is enjoying the whole proceeding.

I'm sorry: no one, not even the victims' families and most certainly no government official, has a right to enjoy an execution. If it were anywhere other than Utah, I'd urge citizens to impeach Shurtleff, to throw him out of office immediately. But you know there's no hope of that.