"Wyo. lawmaker proposes firing squads for executions," is by Ben Neary of Associated Press, via CBS News. It's also available from the Arizona Republic.
A Wyoming lawmaker is pushing to allow use of firing squads to execute condemned state inmates if constitutional problems or other issues ever prevented the state from using lethal injections.
Sen. Bruce Burns, R-Sheridan, said Monday that state law currently calls for using a gas chamber if lethal injection is unavailable.
"The state of Wyoming doesn't have a gas chamber currently, an operating gas chamber, so the procedure and expense to build one would be impractical to me," said Burns, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"I consider, frankly, the gas chamber to be cruel and unusual, so I went with firing squad because they also have it in Utah," Burns said. He's introduced the bill for consideration in the legislative session that starts Feb. 10 in Cheyenne.
"One of the reasons I chose firing squad as opposed to any other form of execution is because frankly it's one of the cheapest for the state," Burns said. "The expense of building a gas chamber I think would be prohibitive when you consider how many people would be executed by it, and even the cost of gallows."
Burns said his bill addressed the possibility that the state could have to find a substitute for using lethal injection because a number of states are running short of the chemicals used for lethal injections.
"Wyoming lawmaker says to bring back the firing squad: It’s ‘cheapest’," is by Cheryl K. Chumley in the Washington Times.
A lawmaker in Wyoming says the state ought to take action now to avoid a constitutional crisis if lethal injection for convicts is ever outlawed and pass a bill to allow for the return of firing squads.
Besides, the lawmaker said, firing squads are economically sensible.
And:
“One of the reasons I chose firing squad as opposed to any other form of execution is because frankly, it’s one of the cheapest for the state,” said Mr. Burns, in the report. “The expense of building a gas chamber, I think, would be prohibitive when you consider how many people would be executed by it, and even the cost of gallows.”
Earlier coverage from Wyoming begins at the link. The last U.S. execution by firing squad was in Utah in 2010.
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