Utah is one of only three states to have ever carried out executions by firing squad, and one of only two to do so after the moratorium ended, the other being South Carolina. John D. Lee was executed by firing squad in 1877 for his role in the Mountain Meadows massacre.

Mar 24, 2015 · SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah Gov. Gary Herbert has given his stamp of approval to a law that brings back the firing squad in the only state that has used it in the past 40 years. Under the measure approved Monday, firing squads will serve as a backup method if lethal injection drugs aren’t available.

Mar 8, 2025 · A convicted double murderer has been executed by firing squad – the first such execution in the United States since 2010, according to the South Carolina Department of Corrections.

Mar 8, 2025 · Firing squads were primarily used only in Utah, where the lawmakers in 1851 designated three possible punishments for murder: shooting, hanging or beheading. The first firing squad...

Apr 5, 2015 · Utah is now the only state in the U.S. that authorizes execution by firing squad. The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah says the bill makes the state look "backward and backwoods," while...

Mar 5, 2025 · Lawmakers in Idaho passed a bill Wednesday that would make firing squads the primary method of execution there. Two people now on Utah’s death row have requested firing squads. Denno urged policymakers to reconsider firing squads in a 2016 law review article.

Dec 27, 2023 · Professor Sarat discusses Utah District Judge Coral Sanchez’s ruling that the state could proceed with the execution by firing squad, dismissing Menzies’s argument and granting the state significant discretion in carrying out …

On Jan. 17, 1977, convicted murderer Gary Gilmore, 36, was killed by a firing squad at Utah State Prison in the first U.S. execution in a decade. A last-minute court decision cleared the way for the man’s execution.

Jan 4, 2024 · Ralph Menzies, Troy Kell, Michael Archuleta, Douglas Carter, and Taberon Honie sought an order vacat­ing Utah’s cur­rent exe­cu­tion pro­to­cols for lethal injec­tion and fir­ing squad and enjoin­ing their future use.

Aug 5, 2024 · Of the seven executions carried out in Utah since 1977, three involved death by firing squad. In 2021, some Utah prosecutors led an effort to abolish capital punishment in the state.