A bill bringing back the use of a firing squad to carry out death penalties has been approved by Utah's Senate. It now only needs Gov. Gary Herbert to sign off on it to be fully implemented.
Sponsored by Rep. Paul Ray, the bill was passed with an 18-10 vote. The legislation was introduced in December last year, but the Republican representative said he started drafting the bill as early as March, long before executions by lethal injection started going awry.
While the bill does allow executions by firing squad, the method will only be used if the state doesn't have access to the drugs it needs for a lethal injection. Utah uses a combination of three drugs to produce its lethal injection cocktail but it doesn't have access anymore to pentobarbital, a barbiturate necessary to the mix.
