Utah reserves firing squad option as doubts rise over lethal injection
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Tennessee's failed attempt to execute Christa Pike is renewing scrutiny of lethal injection — but Utah law still reserves the firing squad as a backup plan.
Why it matters: Lethal injection is Utah's primary execution method, used for five of the state's eight executions since the U.S. Supreme Court approved the death penalty 50 years ago.
Driving the news: Tennessee officials tried to execute Pike with pentobarbital last week, but she survived two doses of the drug and was hospitalized in critical condition.
- Pike's attorney said at least seven needles were used in the failed attempt, which he described as torture — adding that her arm turned purple and showed blistering and burning around the injection site.
- Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee called the failed execution "deeply disturbing," halted executions and ordered an independent review.
Friction point: The botched execution escalated national tension over capital punishment less than a week after death row inmate Douglas Carter was released from the Utah County Jail due to new DNA results that could challenge his conviction in a 1985 murder.
- Prosecutors have said they won't seek the death penalty if they decide to retry him.
The latest: Now the Utah Prisoner Advocate Network is calling for a death penalty moratorium here in light of Pike and Carter's cases.
- Gov. Spencer Cox's office did not immediately respond to Axios' query as to whether a pause was under consideration.
Between the lines: Utah is one of five states that allows firing squads instead of lethal injections.
Catch up quick: Before 2004, defendants could choose firing squad at sentencing, but now it's only a backup in the event that lethal injection is ruled unconstitutional or the chemicals are unavailable.
How it works: The state administers a sedative or barbiturate, commonly pentobarbital, to cause death, or:
- A sedative or anesthetic is followed by a paralytic before a final drug stops the heart.
Yes, but: Pentobarbital itself has been under scrutiny, with critics questioning whether it really causes a painless death.
- Witnesses have described some prisoners gasping for air and struggling to breathe.
- Autopsies have found evidence of prisoner suffering from pulmonary edema, which is a buildup of fluid in the lungs that can create the same sensation as drowning, per NPR.
By the numbers: The Death Penalty Information Center says 75 of 1,054 lethal injections (about 7%) were botched from 1890 to 2010 — the most of any method.
President Trump's Justice Department reauthorized the federal use of pentobarbital after it had been halted by President Biden's DOJ.
Flashback: Only one of Utah's three remaining death row inmates — Troy Michael Kell, sentenced in 1996 in the murder of another inmate at the state prison in Gunnison — chose the firing squad.
The bottom line: Even if lethal injections end, Utah law orders a return to firing squads, whether the defendant chose it or not.