Utah’s history of execution by firing squad

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah death row inmate Ralph Menzies’ execution by firing squad is just a month away.

Utah’s Board of Pardons and Parole will hold hearings next week to consider his request to commute his death sentence to life without parole. His attorneys are also pursuing legal appeals and asking the courts to have Menzies’ competency re-evaluated. They’ve argued his mental state has declined significantly since he was last evaluated and found competent enough to be executed.

Menzies, 67, is scheduled to be executed on Sept. 5 by firing squad for the 1986 kidnapping and murder of 26-year-old Maurine Hunsaker. The mother of three was found deceased in Big Cottonwood Canyon two days after Menzies abducted her from a gas station in Kearns.

While Utah has not executed anyone using the method since 2010, the state has a long history with the firing squad.

In 1977, Utah made headlines across the globe when it carried out the execution of Gary Gilmore by firing squad, becoming the first state to resume executions after capital punishment was reinstated in the U.S. in 1976.

At the time, Utah was the only state using the firing squad, according to an article published on Jan. 16, 1977 by The Daily Spectrum.

“Condemned killers are offered the choice of execution by hanging or by being strapped to a chair and shot by five men,” the article stated. “Of the 44 men executed since statehood, 36 chose the firing squad.”

State lawmakers removed the option for inmates to choose their method of execution in 2004, making lethal injection the default. But some on Utah’s death row, like Menzies, had already chosen the firing squad.

That was also the case for Ronnie Lee Gardner, who was executed by firing squad in 2010.

In 2015, Utah reinstated the firing squad as a backup method, to be used if drugs for a lethal injection are not available.

Utah is now one of five states where executions by firing squad are legal. This year, South Carolina has executed two people by firing squad in the first firing squad executions since Gardner’s death 15 years ago.

“We have of course seen that the firing squad is not immune from the botches that we’ve seen with other methods of execution,” said Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

The nonprofit center does not take a position on the death penalty, but tracks capital punishment across the country. Maher said the recent execution of Mikal Mahdi shows things don’t always go as planned during an execution.

“We understand the firing squad execution there was botched in the sense that the bullets missed the heart of the prisoner,” said Maher, referring to an execution by firing squad in South Carolina in April. “So, there’s really no guarantee that every execution will go as planned no matter what method is chosen.”

According to documents filed with the South Carolina Supreme Court by the man’s attorneys, bullets “entered just above his abdomen, shattering into metal splinters that destroyed his liver and pancreas, but that largely missed his heart. Mr. Mahdi remained conscious while his heart pumped blood from his wounds into his chest cavity. These facts, drawn from the autopsy commissioned by the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC), explain why witnesses to Mr. Mahdi’s execution heard him scream and groan both when he was shot and nearly a minute afterward.”

Utah’s Department of Corrections is trying to plan for any issues that could arise, should Menzies’ execution go forward as planned on Sept. 5.

“That’s all part of the rehearsals and the planning process,” said department spokesperson Glen Mills. “Anything that could potentially go wrong, we need to consider for that and have those contingency plans.”

Mills said that preparation includes several rehearsals inside the execution chamber at Utah’s State Correctional Facility and firearm proficiency testing for members of the execution team.