Utah Sets the National Mood (I guess) for New Death Penalty Method

No problems with faulty meds or sloppy injections ... 

Straight to the X-marks the spot

Utah makes if official and apparently legal:  re: Utah governor declares firing squad legal.

Background: Gov. Gary Herbert (Natch: a Republican) signed a law into effect that allows the firing squad – a controversial method – to be used when no lethal-injection drugs are available.

Story is here >>> Critics slam “backward” decision.

History in Utah of this Method: Ronnie Lee Gardner (b. January 16, 1961 – d. June 18, 2010) was a criminal who received the death penalty for a murder in 1985. He was executed by a firing squad (Fr word: fusillading) in June 2010. Gardner spent nearly 25 years in the court system, prompting Utah to introduce legislation to limit the number of appeals in capital cases.

Apparently, they got that and with this law, much more: This “Back to the Future” method.

History since the death penalty was reinstituted in 1976 reflects these three executions in the US:

1.  Gary Gilmore was executed in January 1977, at Utah’s State Prison.

2.  John Albert Taylor was executed in 1996. Taylor reportedly chose this method of execution, in the words of the New York Times, “to make a statement that Utah was sanctioning murder.”

3.  Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by five anonymous officers in June 2010.

Idaho banned execution by firing squad in 2009. That left Oklahoma as the only state left that utilized the method (but only as a secondary method).

In January 2015, Wyoming passed legislation making it their legal form of capital punishment.  

Now Utah joins that exclusive club. Neat club, eh???