Facing a shortage of lethal injection drugs, Utah’s GOP majority legislature just passed a bill clearing the way for execution by firing squad. The Nation’s Chris Hayes interviewed Utah State Representative Paul Ray, the author of the legislation, about what motivated him to propose the bill and the overall ethics of firing squads.
“Is the barbarism of whatever horrific murder has been committed…the standard the state should be using?” Hayes asked. Representative Ray replied that given the shortage of injection drugs, a firing squad helped provide “some closure” in capital cases. “There’s another option,” Hayes said. “You can not execute people.”
—Avi Asher-Schapiro
