Eliminate 'firing squad' option

Utah is the only state in the nation that gives death row inmates a choice between death by injection or firing squad.

With the prospect of the state conducting two executions by firing squad this summer, the Utah Legislature needs to re-examine this issue. Utah should eliminate this option, which leaves lethal injection as the state's only method of execution. This would be consistent with most other states, and it would be the most humane way to carry out the sentence.

In the past, corrections officials have balked at an all-out ban of the firing squad option, noting that the firing squad eliminated the need for medical personnel. Also, administering lethal injection through an infusion process can be problematic among inmates who have long abused intravenous drugs, which can cause their veins to collapse.

If that is an ongoing concern in Utah, lawmakers could craft a law that would establish the firing squad as a legal option but leave the decision to corrections officials. State officials then risk appearing that they are carrying out some form of vengeance, which the death penalty decidedly is not.

Eliminating the firing squad also precludes condemned killers from going out in what some consider a blaze of glory. The state does not conduct executions to make a political statement. It is carrying out a punishment handed down by a jury or a judge, after a prescribed appeals process.

While some death-row inmates argue they should be given the option, most who choose the firing squad do so because it attracts more international attention to the inmate's case and the issue of the death penalty.

Others choose the firing squad because they want to make their executions as difficult as possible for the state. Death-row inmate Roberto Arguelles' crude and disruptive behavior during a proceeding in state court this past week provided a glimpse of the state's challenges in managing some condemned killers.

In the past, corrections officials have said lethal injection is problematic, too, because the American Medical Association forbids doctors and nurses from participating in any type of killing, including executions. Other health workers who are not bound by these restrictions could prepare the IV and leave the administration of lethal substances to corrections officials.

While this is admittedly a sensitive issue, lethal injection would prevent what is supposed to be a solemn occasion from turning into a media circus. Executions must be carried out with the highest degree of dignity for all.

The most sensible option is to mandate execution by injection in the next session of the Utah Legislature but to grandfather the wishes of inmates who have already chosen the firing squad when their death sentences were handed down. This decision rightly belongs in the hands of the state.