By James Queally | Tribune News Service
Inmates on Utah’s death row can now be executed by a firing squad, under new legislation signed into law by Gov. Gary Herbert on Monday.
The measure, which cleared the state Senate by an 18-10 vote this month, allows Utah to put inmates to death by firing squad if the state cannot obtain the drugs needed to conduct a lethal injection.
Utah uses a three-drug cocktail to perform lethal injections. State Rep. Paul Ray, the Republican legislator who wrote the bill, has said the state no longer has access to pentobarbital, a barbiturate needed for the cocktail.
