Published: 02.21.2004
By Paul Foy
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SALT LAKE CITY - The Utah Legislature gave final approval Friday to a bill eliminating
firing squad executions - but allowing four current death-row inmates to go
out in a hail of bullets.
The House voted 54-12 Friday to execute prisoners by lethal injection only,
after making an exception for the four who already have requested firing squad
executions. Firing squads would be reinstated if lethal injection ever is found
unconstitutional.
The bill now goes to Gov. Olene Walker, who is expected to sign it.
Final approval in the House came without debate. The Senate on Thursday took
up the merits of the firing squad and voted 16-9 to do away with it.
Sen. Ron Allen, a Democrat, said allowing murderers to choose firing squads
so they can "go out in a blaze of glory" perversely made heroes of
criminals and caused victims' families more pain.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, two people
in the United States have died by firing squad, both in Utah: Gary Gilmore in
1977 and John Albert Taylor in 1996. Taylor's execution drew more than 150 television
crews from around the world.
Idaho and Oklahoma retain the firing squad on their books as an option but haven't
used it in modern history.
Utah's firing squads drew on a purported early Mormon belief holding that justice
was not done unless a murderer's blood was shed. However, the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints told the Legislature that was not church dogma and
it had no objection to abolishing the firing squad.
The Legislature approved a companion bill Thursday that bans executions on Sundays,
Mondays and holidays as a cost-saving measure. Executioners normally don't work
weekends or holidays, and it costs $45,000 in overtime to carry out an execution
on those days, said Republican Rep. DeMar Bowman.