Utah may become the only state to allow death penalty by firing squad after a controversial bill passed in the legislature on Tuesday.
The state senate approved the measure 18-10 to allow firing squad if lethal injection drugs are unavailable. The measure passed the Utah House of Representatives last month.
States across the country have had to change their lethal injection cocktails after several European drug manufacturers banned American prisons from using their products in executions.
The newly passed bill allows execution by firing squad if "the state is unable to lawfully obtain the substance or substances necessary to conduct an execution by lethal intravenous injection 30 or more days" before the scheduled execution.
Republican Rep. Paul Ray, who sponsored the bill, said that firing squad deaths are "a quick bleed-out" when performed by marksmen, and are a more humane alternative to the recent rash of botched lethal injections.
In April 2014, Oklahoma death row inmate Clayton Lockett began convulsing after the first drug in the lethal injection cocktail, midazolam, was injected. It was the first time that Oklahoma had used the drug in its cocktail.
Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton told reporters that Lockett's vein exploded after the midazolam was injected. The inmate was given the rest of the lethal injection cocktail, and died of a heart attack 43 minutes after the first injection.
Midazolam and hydromorphone were used in a botched January 2014 execution in Ohio where convicted killer Dennis McGuire seized and choked for 26 minutes before dying.
Some Utah legislators said that the firing squad is not an acceptable alternative, however, and called the practice antiquated and cruel.
Gov. Gary Herbert acknowledged through his spokesperson that the bill would offer a back up method to lethal injection, but did not say if he planned to sign the legislation.
