Utah lawmakers: Legalizing death by firing squad is pragmatic approach

Utah lawmakers say they took a pragmatic approach in approving the firing squad as a form of execution if lethal-injection drugs aren’t available.

Their thinking: Develop a backup plan in case a nationwide lethal-drug shortage persists.

But critics say bringing back the firing squad in Utah — the only state to use the method in the past 40 years — could tarnish the state’s image with visitors.

Tourism is big business in Utah, home to world-class ski resorts and spectacular national parks. Travelers spent a record $7.5 billion in the state in 2013, and tourism dollars are linked to one of every 10 Utah jobs, according to a University of Utah report released this year.

But firing squad executions draw a different kind of attention _ one Utah lawmakers decided 11 years ago that the state didn’t need. Former state Rep. Sheryl Allen said this week that reinstating the firing squad as a backup could once again elicit criticism and give the state a bad reputation.

“I think Utah needs to be concerned. That’s not what we want our attention on,” said Allen, a Republican who sponsored the 2004 bill that did away with firing squads as a primary execution method.

Bringing back the method adds fuel to the fire for critics who point to other Utah oddities — such as its strict, sometimes confusing liquor laws — as reasons to steer clear, said David Corsun, director of the University of Denver’s Fritz Knoebel School of Hospitality Management.

Utah also has long been linked to polygamy, which was once practiced by Mormons but is now illegal and not sanctioned by the church.

The firing squad could affect Salt Lake City’s position in the competitive and lucrative convention business, Corsun said.

Large associations with members of varied political and social backgrounds try to avoid states where controversial laws recently have passed.

Venues in other cities certainly will bring up Utah’s firing squad measure as a way to sway associations away from the state, Corsun said. Gov. Gary Herbert signed the bill Monday, saying he agreed a backup method was needed.

Current legislators and tourism officials, however, downplayed the new law’s impact on Utah’s image. State tourism director Vicki Varela said in a statement she doesn’t think the firing squad presents a major problem because executions are rare and the possibility that the state will have to use its backup is remote.

The bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Paul Ray, said the issue of firing squads in Utah is far less controversial than the ACLU and critics want to make it.

The governor’s office received a much smaller response to Ray’s proposal than it did for other hot-button issues, like same-sex marriage.

Still, among the hundreds of emails sent to Herbert from places including Rhode Island and New Zealand were messages from people like Seattle resident Randy Kilmer, who called the firing squad barbaric and said he would never ski in Utah again if it became law.

Ashley Korenblat, CEO of Western Spirit Cycling in Moab, said tourists follow news about the places they visit. She recalled visitors from Arkansas who commented on another Utah news story of national note: the passing of an anti-discrimination law that protects lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents and religious rights. The tourists were pleased with the state’s progressive step, she said.

“People do notice what you’re doing, and the vacation industry is quite competitive,” Korenblat said. “Regardless of whether (the firing squad is) a good idea or not, it’s a little strange.”

ACLU Utah Legal Director John Mejia said it likely will take only one firing squad death for another influx of international attention. That could happen in a few years when convicted murder Ron Lafferty’s execution comes up.

Lafferty had already chosen to die by gunfire before the 2004 law that had scrapped the method. Another death row inmate, Doug Carter, has picked lethal injection but could be killed by firing squad if the drug shortage lingers and the state can’t get a supply 30 days in advance.