Wyoming Firing Squad Bill Shot Down By State Senate
A Wyoming firing squad bill was rejected by the state’s senate Tuesday. According to Star Tribune, the final vote was 17 in favor and 13 opposed when the bill needed a minimum approval by at least two-thirds of the senators.
According to an earlier report by The Inquisitr, the controversial bill was put forward by senator Bruce Burns mainly due to the fact that “states are finding it increasingly harder to obtain the right mix of drugs required for the lethal injection from suppliers.” The current state law has lethal injection as their main form of execution, and according to The Examiner, the gas chamber is listed as the “backup” method.
Burns stated that it is indeed becoming harder and harder for some states to get the drugs required for a lethal injection, and he also believes that building a gas chamber might not be worth the expense “for the rare executions Wyoming does have”.
According to Christian Science Monitor, Wyoming only has one inmate on death row at the moment. Dale Wayne Eaton is currently appealing the death sentence that he received in 2004 for the rape and murder of 18-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmell of Billings, Montana. The report continued on to state that the Wyoming firing squad bill isn’t the first of its kind. This form of execution was reportedly brought up in Missouri too.
“This isn’t an attempt to time-warp back into the 1850s or the wild, wild West or anything like that,” said Missouri state Rep. Rick Brattin, who this month proposed making firing squads an option for executions. “It’s just that I foresee a problem, and I’m trying to come up with a solution that will be the most humane yet most economical for our state.”
According to The Inquisitr, Burns talked more Monday on his thought process behind the Wyoming firing squad bill.
“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. 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.”
The idea behind the Wyoming firing squad as a form of execution has stirred up quite the controversy. What do you think about using a firing squad for execution purposes? Here’s what some of the Twitter universe has to say:
Wyoming Senate votes down firing squad bill http://t.co/ZZuFCyzqzG Just do away with the death penalty.
— Dan Wayment (@cantcu) February 12, 2014
Wyoming’s government… The people who deserve that firing squad the governor wants back are his own police. Psychopaths. — RobRobXDC (@L2P_Kid) February 10, 2014
what about public stoning? Wyoming Senate votes down bill allowing firing-squad executions: http://t.co/tamH7KQcYw” — Steve Weinstein (@steveweinstein) February 11, 2014
@stayvicious @HuffPostCrime they still use firing squad in Utah. it’s grandfathered in for prisoners sentenced prior to certain legislation
— Jonathan Zaun (@JonathanZaun) February 12, 2014
