Every week, “The Patriot” scours the web to bring you headlines from around the world. Please note that no original reporting is involved. Feel free to discuss these stories at the bottom of the page.
Utah – A convicted killer on death row has selected to die by a firing squad, the third to do so in the past 35 years. Utah, only one of the two states to currently allow the firing squad as a method of death if others are deemed unconstitutional, took the option away in 2004. But Ronnie Lee Gardner, the convicted killer, was sentenced in 1985 and originally chose the firing squad. Anti-capital punishment protestors, including the family of Gardner’s victim, are demonstrating outside the courthouse where the order of execution was signed. Gardner is scheduled to die June 18. His lawyer is currently seeking an appeal.
Read more at bbc.co.uk.
Barcelona, Spain – Doctors claim they have performed the world’s first full face transplant, replacing a man’s nose, lips, teeth, and cheekbones. Requiring 30 doctors, the surgery took 24 hours. The patient, whose name is being withheld, opted for the transplant after an accident severely disfigured his face. The accident from which he sustained the injuries was not made clear. The patient requested to see himself in the mirror a week after the procedure and wrote that he was “satisfied.”
Read more at cnn.com.
Hanover, New Hampshire – A new study links the viewing of R-rated movies and drinking in middle school-aged children. Among the children who indicated their parents allow them to watch R-rated films “all the time,” a quarter of them tried an alcoholic drink without telling their parents. Of those “never allowed” to watch R-rated films, just three percent had had an alcoholic drink without their parent’s knowing. James Sargent, co-author of the study, said parenting style was accounted for and had no effect. According to Sargent, “the movie effect is over and above that effect.”
Read more at usatoday.com.
Collin Hoofnagle can be reached for comment at [email protected].