Utah Senate Votes To Bring Back The Firing Squad For Prisoners Sentenced To Death

Utah is about to become the only state that uses the firing squad to carry out the death penalty. On Tuesday, lawmakers in the Utah Senate passed a bill 18-10 that would allow for a firing squad if the drugs for a lethal injection were unavailable. The Inquisitr previously reported that the House narrowly voted to pass the bill along to the Senate in February.

Utah has been struggling with obtaining the lethal injection drugs, because of a nationwide shortage. The Republican Representative that sponsored the bill, Paul Ray of Clearfield, says that a firing squad is actually a more humane form of execution. FOX News reports that Ray argued that a team of trained marksman is faster and more efficient then the drawn out deaths that have occurred during botched lethal injections.

“We would love to get the lethal injection worked out so we can continue with that. But if not, now we have a backup plan.”

The state of Utah had the option of using a firing squad until 2004 when they were banned. However, inmates who chose that option before they were banned were still shot to death. The last person to be sentenced to death by firing squad was in 2010, when Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by five police officers with.30-caliber Winchester rifles. That was also the last time someone was put to death in the state of Utah.

The new law would put together a five-person firing squad for the execution, and it would only be used when the drugs for lethal injection would not be available for 30 days prior to the scheduled execution date.

Governor Gary Herbert issued a statement about the possibility of having to use a firing squad saying,

“Our state, as is the case with states around the country, is finding it increasingly difficult to obtain the substances required to perform a lethal injection. We are dedicated to pursuing all reasonable and legal options to obtain those substances to make sure that, when required, we are in a position to carry out this very serious sentence by lethal injection.”

There are several groups opposing the possibility of firing squads being brought back, calling them a cruel holdover from the states Wild West days.

“I think Utah took a giant step backward,” said Ralph Dellapiana, director of Utahns for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. He called firing squads “a relic of a more barbaric past.”

While it is clear that lawmakers have come to a decision on the use of firing squads, it is still unclear if Governor Herbert will sign the law. His spokesman, Marty Carpenter, did issue a statement this week acknowledging that firing squads would give the state legitimate back up plan if the lethal injection drugs are not available.

What are your thoughts on the use of a firing squad? Is it a viable option, or even more cruel and barbaric then a lethal injection?

[Photo courtesy of the Huffington Post]