While many states have wrestled with how to handle death row cases in light of a shortage of lethal injection drugs, Utah has decided to make death by firing squad legal again. No other currently state allows firing squads. Drug companies have become increasingly hesitant to continue to supply the drugs used in lethal injections. In response, several states have attempted to use experimental drug cocktails in recent executions, leading to gruesome botched procedures and prolonged suffering for the inmates.
The law, which was signed by the governor this week says that if correction officials can’t obtain the lethal injection drugs at least 30 days before the scheduled execution, the state will move forward with plans to kill the inmate via a firing squad. The last prisoner to die by firing squad was in 2010. In that case, a man convicted of two murders was bound to a chair, and shot by five police officers with rifles …
