Utah becomes only US state to restore firing squad

It comes on the back of a number of botched lethal executions in several US states that were a result of drugs for execution being unavailable.

LOS ANGELES // Utah has become the only US state to restore the firing squad as a method of execution.

On Monday, its governor Gary Herbert signed the bill into law, allowing for a firing squad if drugs used for executions are unavailable, as has recently been the case in a number of US states.

The legislation was approved by the western US state’s senate earlier this month.

Critics of the bill claim it is barbaric, but the governor’s spokesman Marty Carpenter said: “Those who voiced opposition to this bill are primarily arguing against capital punishment in general, but that decision has already been made in our state.

“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,” said Mr Carpenter.

“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,” he said.

The state had removed the choice for a firing squad execution in 2004. Utah last executed a man by firing squad in 2010 following a request from a death row inmate who was sentenced before the 2004 law went into effect.

The state's main newspaper, the Salt Lake City Tribune, carried comments from readers who were both for and against the new law. Many questioned why it is so hard for US states to acquire the chemicals needed for lethal injection.

In fact, European companies who produce the chemicals have stopped selling them to US states if they are to be used to execute people.

One advocate of using the firing squad, who identified himself as rockinjohnny, wrote: “thank you Governor Herbert, now let’s actually start using it!”

Another lashed out against the change, with morbid humour.

“What fun is a firing squad?,” wrote someone identifying himself as hankt27. “Let’s do something real Utah-like and have hunting resorts where people can pay top dollar to hunt the condemned and then stuff them and hang their heads on their den walls as trophies.”

The US Supreme Court is due next month to consider the constitutionality of lethal injection –– the most common form of execution in the United States, but one that has become increasingly controversial.

In 2008, the court ruled that lethal injection was constitutional, but that was before recent shortages in the most commonly used drugs prompted state officials to come up with lethal medication cocktails that appeared to cause pain and suffering in inmates during some recent executions.

The case before America’s highest court is being brought by three death-row inmates in Oklahoma, who are challenging an untested combination of drugs used in earlier botched executions in the state.

* Agence France-Presse