Nearly 60 percent of Utahns want to keep the firing squad as a method of execution in the state, the latest Deseret News/KSL poll shows.
Murderer John Albert Taylor was shot dead Jan. 26 for the murder/rape of an 11-year-old girl in 1989, throwing Utah into the national limelight and leading Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful, to introduce a bill that would eliminate the firing squad as an alternative method of execution.Allen's bill was scheduled for its first public debate Friday morning in a House committee, but she postponed the hearing because she had other pressing business.
Now murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner is talking of selecting the firing squad as his method of execution. (See accompanying story). One other condemned inmate, Ralph LeRoy Menzies, has chosen to die by firing squad.
Pollster Dan Jones & Associates found that 59 percent of Utahns want to keep the firing squad as a choice in capital cases. Thirty-one percent want to do away with the option, and 10 percent don't care.
Under current Utah law, at the time a murderer is sentenced to die by the court he can choose between the firing squad and lethal injection. If he doesn't choose, the judge will pick lethal injection. However, it appears that death-row inmates can later pick between the two options.
Allen's bill says that if a murderer picks the firing squad before Feb. 28, 1996 - the day the Legislature adjourns - then he can be so executed. So, it appears now that Gardner may be able to be executed by firing squad if Allen's bill passes.
Utah is the only state offering the firing squad. Some believe that is because of a so-called "blood atonement" historical belief among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, there is no and never has been such an official belief in the church, says an encyclopedia on church beliefs, although former church leader Brigham Young did talk about blood atonement.
Even so, Jones' poll shows that 58 percent of those polled who said they are faithful members of the church did not want the firing squad option removed from state law.
The poll also shows that 57 percent of Republicans oppose removing the firing squad option, and 57 percent of Democrats oppose removing the squad from the death penalty law.
Allen has said before that she believes the firing squad should be eliminated because it is costly and unnecessary. Also, she questions why a murderer, who has committed the worst possible acts, should be able to manipulate the Utah justice system by choosing his type of death.
Taylor admitted before his execution that he picked the firing squad to cause Utah officials as much trouble and the state as much embarrassment as he could achieve.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Deseret News/KSL poll
Currently, convicted murderers sentenced to die in Utah can choose the firing squad or lethal injection as a form of execution. Do you favor or oppose removing the firing squad as an option, leaving only lethal injection as the form of execution?
STRONGLY FAVOR REMOVING 18%
SOMEWHAT FAVOR 13%
SOMEWHAT OPPOSE 20%
STRONGLY OPPOSE 39%
DON'T KNOW 10%
Poll conducted Jan. 30-Feb. 1, 1996, 604 residents. Margin of error +/-4%. Survey conducted by Dan Jones & Associates.
1996 Deseret News.