Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe SALT LAKE CITY, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- The Utah legislature is considering changing its execution process to replace a firing squad with lethal injection, but not on weekends or holidays. More than 150 television crews from countries around the world, including Italy, France and Japan, attended Utah's latest firing squad execution, that of John Albert Taylor in 1996. Advertisement But several bills will come up for debate this year to do away with the guns in favor of the needle, the Salt Lake Tribune said Saturday. The measures have been anticipated since August, when the Utah Sentencing Commission said it would support eliminating the firing squads. "We're making a hero out of some idiot that's destroyed families," said Sevier County Sheriff Phil Barney, a member of the sentencing commission, in August. The Utah Department of Corrections has no position on the firing squad bill, said spokesman Jack Ford. However, the department requested a ban on executions on weekends or holidays to keep overtime costs down. Preparation for a Monday execution would take all day Sunday to make special arrangements for victims' family members and the inmate's relatives, as well as rehearse the execution itself. Advertisement
