From Deseret News archives:
Are firing squads a thing of past?
Bill in 2004 Legislature would eliminate option
The mother of Taylor's victim agrees it is a good move to wipe the option off the books and supports legislation that will be introduced in the 2004 legislative session.
"I personally don't think anyone has the right to choose their own death, especially when they have murdered," Sherron King said. "I think they take that right away from themselves."
Sherron King found her daughter, Charla Nicole, in the Washington Terrace apartment they shared one June afternoon in 1989 after she got home from work. Charla, who would have been 12 the next day, had been raped and then strangled with a telephone cord and gagged with a pair of panties.
Taylor, diagnosed as a remorseless pedophile while just a teenager, had been visiting his sister, who lived in the same apartment complex.
Convicted of sexual assault and robbery years earlier in Florida, Taylor was linked to the crime through a set of fingerprints left on the telephone.
Six years later, after being found guilty of murder in a bench trial and dropping his appeals, Taylor was executed.
Utah remains the only state in the country that allows inmates to choose an execution in front of a firing squad. While Idaho has the sentence on its books, a judge has to impose that manner of death.
The months leading up to Taylor's death and the execution itself set off a maelstrom of controversy that attracted international attention stunning the state with its intensity and sparking the inevitable debates over the "barbaric" nature of the execution.
Senate Minority Whip Ron Allen, D-Stansbury Park, said he doesn't want to see a repeat of that.
"Why do these guys get a choice when their victims didn't? Let's take the choice out of the situation and let's take the unwarranted publicity out of it."
Allen and Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful, have introduced legislation that would ban the practice.
The Democrat wants his law to be retroactive, meaning three death-row inmates who've already chosen bullets over the needle won't get that chance.
Comments
- Mitchell called intelligent, controlling 1:19 a.m.
- Brems outlasts 2nd round of votes 1:04 a.m.
- 2 families divided over slaying 1:04 a.m.
- Teen shot in scuffle with trooper 1:03 a.m.
- Nature's Way leaving Utah County 1:03 a.m.
- 'Grandfamilies' a growing trend 12:31 a.m.
- 'Cyber Monday' sales top records 12:29 a.m.
- 2 citations issued at Y.-U. game 12:26 a.m.
- No drugs in driver of Am.F. band bus 12:15 a.m.
- Governor Mansion to begin free tours 12:14 a.m.
- Hall's pain reflects self-betrayal
- Y. student vanished in China
- Max Hall issues apology
- Utes won't respond to Hall
- Hall reprimanded by MWC
- Cougs begin bowl preparations
- Teen shot in scuffle with trooper
- Mitchell called intelligent, controlling
- Matthews passes new Jazz tests
- Daughter: Mitchell fed me my pet
- Hall mouths off about hate of Utah
898 - Cougars beat Utes in overtime
481 - Max Hall issues apology
379 - Hall reprimanded by MWC
370 - Hall's pain reflects self-betrayal
316 - Utes won't respond to Hall
257 - BYU is champion of the state
140 - Man trapped in Nutty Putty cave dies
121 - Cave to be sealed with body inside
120 - Religion in politics is tiresome
110
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