Utah lawmakers recommended a proposal on Wednesday to allow the practice of using firing squads in state executions instead of the hugely problematic use of lethal-injection drugs, the Associated Press reported. If passed, the previously banned law will return after a span of ten years.
The state will be required to request the services of a firing squad if it fails to obtain the lethal injection drugs 30 days before the scheduled execution, according to the proposal from Republican Rep. Paul Ray of Clearfield. Although the practice had previously been banned due to a circus of media attention, Ray stated that it still remains the most humane way to execute a prisoner because the inmate dies instantly.
"We have to have an option," Ray told reporters Wednesday. "If we go hanging, if we go to the guillotine, or we go to the firing squad, electric chair, you're still going to have the same circus atmosphere behind it. So is it really going to matter?"
After a 20-minute discussion on Wednesday, a 9-2 approval vote was cast by an interim panel of Utah lawmakers. However, the proposal will still need to go through the full legislative process after lawmakers convene for their annual session in January, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
Currently, the state's law only allows criminals to be executed through a firing squad if the prisoner was sentenced to death before 2004. It was last used in 2010 when Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by five police officers with .30-caliber Winchester rifles.
Since years, "states used a three-drug combination to execute inmates, but European drugmakers have refused to sell them to prisons and corrections departments out of opposition to the death penalty," according to the AP. "That move has led states to use different types, combinations and doses of lethal drugs, but those methods have been challenged in court."
Specifically, challenges with the drugs and prolonged executions earlier this year in Oklahoma and Arizona have driven the state's lawmakers to seek alternatives. But critics argue that bringing back the practice of firing squads will get them to square one, which entails lots of negative media attention.
Jean Hill with the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City spoke Wednesday in opposition to the proposal and the death penalty in general, telling lawmakers that there is no humane way to kill someone.
"These may be heinous crimes that have been committed, and the idea of revenge is a normal human emotion," Hill said. "But the state's role is not to take revenge on people."
