Utah law makers are now raising a proposal that will allow Utah firing squad a death penalty. The proposal was laid Wednesday, a decade after that it was not allowed for the state execution.
The Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee headed by Republican Rep. Paul Ray of Clearfield proposed firing squad as an option for death penalty to prevent lethal-injection drug complications and in the event that the drugs required for lethal injection is not available.
Utah, the thirteenth largest state in the U.S. has recorded index crime of 90,084 in 2012, with 1.72 percent increase since 2011. More violent crimes were committed with 5.69 percent increase covering cases of rapes, aggravated assaults and robberies, the Utah Department of Public Safety recorded.
Republican Rep. Paul Ray added, Utah firing squad death penalty will be the most humane way to execute somebody because it is sudden and painless.
Apparently, the European company manufacturing the cocktail drug for lethal injection has been refusing now to sell to the drug to the United States. The company does not support death penalty and getting the drug for the state execution is another problem.
The proposing team of Utah firing squad as death penalty states that execution must be done in the most painless way unlike in the lethal injection where the person is seen struggling and fighting for his life. Although there is an initial pain to firing squad, state witness won't see the person grasping for breath, Rep. Paul Ray said.
The discussion of the Utah firing squad death penalty lasted for 20 minutes until the idea to approve the new state firing squad execution has been approved against a 9-2 vote. There will be an annual session for the lawmakers in January 2015 for full legislative process review of the proposal.
Nine out of 11 lawmakers favored Utah firing squad death penalty as an option for lethal injection. Rep. Mark Wheatley of Murray and Santaquin Republican Rep. Marc Roberts opposed the proposal.
In the recent years three-related drugs for lethal injection were used for the execution, however, the European company supplying it stop providing the lethal drugs anymore as it opposes to death penalty.
More combined alternatives of the drugs were proposed, and were used by various states however, the court find issues on its application. States including Arizona and Oklahoma face issues in court this year.
At present, the Utah law supports firing squad as death penalty for inmates who were jailed to death before the year 2004. There were only three prisoners who were executed by firing squad since 1977 including Gary Gilmore (1977), John Albert Taylor (1996) and Ronnie Lee Gardner (2010).
