Missouri lawmaker Paul Fitzwater from Potosi co-sponsored legislation this week that will bring back execution by firing squad.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported:
When Rep. Paul Fitzwater, R-Potosi, signed his name as co-sponsor of a bill that would allow execution by firing squad, he was thinking of the victims.
That last minute or so of a murder victim’s life can be brutal: He or she doesn’t get to take a lethal injection to die, Fitzwater said.
“People look at inmates who will be executed as victims,” Fitzwater said. “But the real victims have no voice because they are gone.”
Currently, the state puts inmates to death through lethal injection, although the existing law also allows for lethal gas — the method by which 39 people were executed from 1938 to 1965.
The House bill adds the option of firing squad executions consisting of five law enforcement officers chosen by the state corrections director.
Since 1976, more than 1,300 executions have been conducted in the United States. Only three were by firing squad, conducted in Oklahoma and Utah, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Meanwhile in Ohio… Their latest execution lasted an agonizing 26 minutes.
