Utah’s proposal comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on an Oklahoma death penalty case. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesdaytold a Washington forum: “It is one thing to put somebody in jail for an extended period of time, have some new test that you can do, and determine that person was, in fact, innocent. There is no ability to correct a mistake where somebody has, in fact, been executed—and that is, from my perspective, the ultimate nightmare.” On Friday, Pennsylvania’s governor imposed a moratorium on executions, and Montana’s legislature is considering a measure to abolish the death penalty. So it’s understandable that Utah’s House of Representatives voted carefully on this issue.Part of the story of Utah’s firing squad push rests with the bill’s chief sponsor, Paul Ray, a Republican who sits on the state legislature’s law enforcement and criminal justice committee. Ray has argued that death by firing squad is faster and more humane than lethal injection. His argument is also financial. During one debate on the legislative floor, Raysaid, “We are facing a situation where we aregoing to have to go to court, and it’s going to cost millions of dollars for the state of Utah to defend what we’re doing.”
