Utah governor Gary Herbert signed a bill last week reinstating the use of the firing squad as an alternative method of execution for prisoners convicted of capital crimes.
The method was adopted as a backup plan in the event of a lack of necessary supplies for lethal injection, the state’s preferred method. Utah is currently the only state to allow execution by firing squad.
The bill was drafted as a result of an ongoing shortage of lethal injection drugs, as well as concerns regarding the method’s effectiveness in providing a swift, humane death.
Marty Carpenter, a spokesman for Gov. Herbert, said that lethal injection will continue to be preferred when supplies are readily available.
“We regret anyone ever commits the heinous crime of aggravated murder to merit the death penalty, and we prefer to use our primary method of lethal injection when such a sentence is issued,” Carpenter said. “However, when a jury makes the decision and a judge signs a death warrant, enforcing that lawful decision is the obligation of the executive branch.”
State representative Paul Ray, the bill’s main sponsor, said during his support of the bill that the firing squad is faster and more humane than lethal injection, citing the tendency of the latter method to cause long, drawn-out deaths when administered incorrectly. Opponents of the bill argue that the reinstatement of the firing squad shows a lack of civility on the part of state legislators. The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah said in a statement that the bill makes the state seem “backward and backwoods.”
Utah had previously ceased offering the firing squad as an option for inmates in 2004, citing the tendency of media to fixate on the execution method itself rather than the victims, according to USA Today. The last inmate to face death by firing squad in the U.S. was executed in Utah in 2010.
