Utah governor says he'll likely approve firing squad bill
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Utah's governor said Thursday he is leaning toward signing a proposal that would make his state the only one in America to allow firing squad executions if lethal injection drugs are unavailable.
Republican Gov. Gary Herbert said Utah is a capital punishment state and needs a backup method to carry out executions if a shortage of lethal injection drugs continues. States have struggled to keep up their drug inventories as European manufacturers opposed to capital punishment refuse to sell the components of lethal injections to US prisons.
However, Herbert said he doesn't think Utah will need to use the firing squad because there are ways to find the drugs. And state corrections officials "will take whatever steps are necessary" to obtain them, the governor said at his monthly news conference televised on KUED-TV. He didn't elaborate.
