Arizona votes could decided whether to use firing squad for death row inmates

PHOENIX — Arizona voters could soon be asked to decide whether death row inmates should face a firing squad.

Lawmakers are debating whether to approve that measure for a statewide vote, as Arizona prepares for its first execution in three years next month.

Persistent problems with lethal injections are nudging states toward what one expert calls “the least inhumane way” to take a life. 

South Carolina is leading the way.  

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In just two weeks, the first execution by firing squad in the U.S. in 15 years is scheduled to take place there. 

In Arizona, the Republican lawmaker pushing for a statewide vote on firing squads says he’s responding to the recommendation of an adviser fired by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs.

“The firing squad is a faster, more humane method of execution than our current lethal injection practices,” said Republican State Rep. Alexander Kolodin of Scottsdale.

He wants voters to decide whether to amend the state Constitution by replacing execution by lethal injection with firing squads. 

Kolodin is also motivated by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’ firing of a retired judge she hired to review the state’s death penalty procedures. 

The judge had advised using a firing squad.

“This is about taking the independent analysis that the taxpayers of this state have paid for and that Katie Hobbs has not been willing to take seriously,” Kolodin said.

Kolodin’s resolution is on its way to vote in the House after advancing on a party-line vote in committee.

The Republican-controlled House and Senate can put the firing squad question to voters without Gov. Hobbs’ approval. 

If both chambers approve the measure, a vote would take place in 2026.

The measure faced some opposition during the committee hearing.

“We’ve seen too many people sentenced to death row (who are) later exonerated,” said Jeanne Woodbury of the ACLU of Arizona. 

“The price for being wrong is too great.”

Courtney Quinones-Machado, a former corrections officer, told the panel: 

“You’re asking officers to put themselves in a position to take another human life in exchange for low pay and no emotional support after they go through it.” 

Firing squads have been used since 1608 in colonial America, more than four centuries ago. 

“We’re the only country in the world that has six methods,” said Fordham University Law Professor Deborah Denno, one of the country’s leading experts on execution methods.

“We’re always experimenting.” 

Lethal injection has fallen out of favor amid problems obtaining injection drugs and botched executions.

“Different states use the method differently, depending on where they’re getting their chemicals, and it can be quite frightening where they’re getting their chemicals,” Denno said.

“After 40-something years, it’s certainly never been worse than it has been. So maybe it’s time to try to move on to (a) new method.”

Firing squads, Denno said, are a “known method.”

“Death is certain and it’s relatively quick,” she said. “In other words, we know it. It’s been used since 1608.”

Is the firing squad more humane than other methods, such as lethal injection or the gas chamber?  

“To me, at least, it’s the least inhumane is probably the way to put it,” Denno said. 

“It fills the kind of criteria that the Supreme Court has proffered to determine whether an execution meets Eighth Amendment standards,” Denno added. The Eighth Amendment is a prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. 

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