Illustration of a deserter being executed by a firing squad at the Federal Camp in Alexandria during the American civil war. Credit: Getty Images
A Wyoming lawmaker has proposed the use of thefiringsquadto execute state inmates if any issues ever prevented the state from using lethal injection, the Associated Press reported.
Republican Sen. Bruce Burns told the AP that state law currently calls for using a gas chamber if lethal injection is unavailable.
“One of the reasons I chosefiring squadas opposed to any other form of execution is because frankly it’s one of the cheapest for the state,” Burns said. “The expense of building a gas chamber I think would be prohibitive when you consider how many people would be executed by it, and even the cost of gallows.”
Burns, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also told the AP that he considers the gas chamber to be cruel and unusual punishment.
He’s introduced the bill for consideration in the legislative session that starts Feb. 10.
Wyoming has only one inmate on death row and last executed an inmate in 1992, AP reported.
