Lawmakers in Wyoming are pondering bringing back the firing squad as concern mounts nationally about the efficacy of death by lethal injection and as the Supreme Court prepares to debate whether such a method violates the Constitution, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Senators in Wyoming approved on a 17-12 vote last week bringing back the firing squad as a fallback plan if concerns continue over lethal injection, the Journal said, adding that several companies that supply the death drugs have stopped making them available to states.
Wyoming is not alone in revisiting how it executes death row inmates, although the last time someone there was put to death was 1976, the Journal said,
citing statistics from the Death Penalty Information Center.
Currently just one state, Utah, uses a firing squad as one remedy available for inmates who are slated to die, but that method was banned by the state for new Death Row inmates in 2004, allowing it only to be used on those who chose it prior to that date,
NBC News said. State lawmakers there, however, also are considering bringing it back.
Last week, the Supreme Court surprised some when it announced it would review lethal injections in Oklahoma. The case arose after inmates there petitioned the high court to argue that lethal injection amounts to cruel and unusual punishment after the botched execution of prisoner Clayton Lockett,
CNN said.
It was determined that Lockett died an agonizing 43 minutes after receiving a lethal injection of the state's three-drug protocol, finally succumbing from a heart attack,
The Washington Post reported. His execution prompted an outcry over lethal injections nationwide.
"The execution of Clayton Lockett will be a catalyst for those of us who are aggrieved and outraged to continue to fight to abolish the death penalty in Oklahoma and every other state in America,"
noted the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty in a statement after the Oklahoma execution.
"While we are deeply saddened by the outcome, we are not intimidated or defeated. Our fight continues for justice."
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