Today marked an evolution of sorts for Twitter. It's no longer just for following your favorite celebrity rants or for informing your followers you're having a ham sandwich or just took a shower.

And self-promotion on Twitter seems so yesterday. Consider Friday's tweets from Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. Around midnight, he tweeted that he'd given "the go ahead" to execute condemned inmate Ronnie Gardner.

Moments after the tweet to the attorney general's roughly 7,000 followers, Gardner was executed by firing squad.

"May God grant him the mercy he denied his victims," Shurtleff tweeted. He also tweeted that it was "A solemn day" and to "Mourn his victims" around the same time Gardner was being pelted by a five-man firing squad.

To be sure, Shurtleff also invoked Twitter for what Twitter and politicians do best: self-promote.

"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," he tweeted.

Firing Squad is trending right now on Twitter.

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