Utah Group Plans to Fight Reintroduction of Firing Squad

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A group opposed to capital punishment plans to protest outside the Utah State Capitol on Tuesday over one lawmaker's plan to resurrect the use of firing squads.

The group Utahns for Alternatives to the Death Penalty argues firing squad executions are a gruesome relic of the state's Wild West past that create a media frenzy around condemned inmates.

Clearfield Republican Rep. Paul Ray says the firing squad, with trained marksmen and a restrained inmate, offers a swift, more humane death than lethal injection, with less of a risk of complications.

Ray's bill to bring back firing squads has not yet had a committee hearing. Utah no longer allows inmates to choose death by firing squad but it's still available to those who opted for it before the law changed in 2004.