Mormon Church OKs Firing Squad Change
SALT LAKE CITY - Hoping to clear the way for eliminating the firing squad as a means of execution, a Utah commission asked for and received a statement from the Mormon church saying it does not oppose the change.

In a one-sentence statement provided Wednesday to the Utah Sentencing Commission, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said it "has no objection to the elimination of the firing squad in Utah."

The clarification was needed, according to one commission member, because of a purported church doctrine that held that justice was not done unless a murderer's blood was shed.

The Mormon statement removes a significant obstacle in Utah's effort to do away with firing-squad executions.

Commission member Paul Boyden said recent letters to the editor to newspapers indicate some in Mormon-dominated Utah still believe the firing squad is necessary for religious reasons. Commission members feared that belief could hurt the chances of the proposed change in the Legislature.

"If we hadn't (asked for the church's position), this probably would have been a question among some legislators and it may have not made it out of committee," Boyden said.

The commission is studying the issue and plans to formally recommend eliminating the firing squad, leaving injection as Utah's only method of execution. Commission members want to make the change quickly to stop the "media circus" that surrounds firing squad executions, Boyden said.

Utah is the only state that uses the firing squad method, although Idaho and Oklahoma retain it as an option if other methods are not viable.

Utah's last execution by firing squad took place in 1996. Two death row inmates who had chosen that method had been scheduled to die in June, but those executions were delayed.