Utah Stories

Three Utah Inmates to be Executed by the Reinstated Firing Squad

In a reversal of a law prohibiting execution by firing squad in 2004, Utah prepares to re-institute the practice.

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Wasatch – the oldest facility at Utah State Prison. From Utah Department of Corrections website.

According to a new article by the law enforcement publication, Law Officer, Utah will soon be executing three convicted murderers by firing squad. This will be the first time Utah has used execution by firing squad since the option was reinstituted in 2015. This reverses HB180, passed by the Utah legislature in 2004, which prohibited firing arms as a means of execution, leaving only the option of lethal injection. In more recent years, however, the chemicals used by lethal injection have become harder to come by, as many of the companies producing them have refused to sell them for the purposes of execution. Utah and Oklahoma are currently the only states with the option to be executed by firing squad. Other states are considering other antiquated execution methods, such as the electric chair, because of those drug shortages.

Read the article by Joe Simonson here.

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