PEOPLE are to be killed by firing squads in Utah if lethal injection drugs are not available.

The new law allowing the reintroduction of firing squads was signed on Monday causing outrage amongst civil rights groups.

It means that Utah is the only state in the US which allows firing squads to carry out the death penalty.

The measure has been brought in after European manufacturers opposed to the death penalty refused to sell the drugs to states that sanction capital punishment.Governor Gary Herbert who signed the new law admitted the use of firing squads were “a little bit gruesome” but said a back-up execution method was needed because of the shortage of lethal injection drugs.

The bill’s sponsor, Republican Paul Ray, argued that firing squads could offer a quicker, more humane alternative to the botched lethal injections seen in recent years.

The governor’s spokesman Marty Carpenter said: “We regret anyone ever commits the heinous crime of aggravated murder to merit the death penalty and we prefer to use our primary method of lethal injection when such a sentence is issued. However, when a jury makes the decision and a judge signs a death warrant, enforcing that lawful decision is the obligation of the executive branch.”



Gary Herbert signed the new law in Utah


SORCERY

ACROSS the world people can be beheaded for charges of sorcery, stoned for adultery, or hanged for drugs smuggling.

The United States carries out more executions than any other liberal democracy in the world and was the only country in the Americas to carry out executions in 2014.

This is despite evidence contradicting those who claim the death penalty is a deterrent for the most abhorrent crimes in society.

A 2012 report by independent researchers at America’s National Research Council of the Academies found that US states using the death penalty have a similar murder rate to states that don’t use it.

“If the death penalty is not a deterrent, and it is not, and if the death penalty does not make us safer, and it does not, then it is only high-cost revenge,” said Florida judge Charles M Harris.

Since 1976, 143 US Death Row prisoners have been cleared completely of their crimes, which begs the question of how many have been executed for a crime they did not commit.

The only other country in the Americas which practises capital punishment is St Kitts and Nevis. The most recent countries to abolish the death penalty in the Americas are Bolivia (2007), Argentina (2009), and Suriname (2015).

Other countries to abolish it recently are Gabon (2010), Latvia (2012), Benin (2012), Mongolia (2012), Madagascar (2012), Chad (2014), and Fiji (2015).


WORST RECORDS

WHILE the number of countries carrying out executions is steadily decreasing, a small number of countries around the world continue to sentence people to death.

Amnesty International states that countries known to have used the death penalty in the last two years are: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Nigeria, North Korea, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, USA, Vietnam and Yemen.

It is known that at least since 2009, Iran and Saudi Arabia have executed offenders who were under the age of 18 at the time the crime was committed.

Over the last two years executions have taken place in public in Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Somalia, with the latter being Africa’s leading executioner.

While the US holds the record for more executions than any other liberal democracy, Asia holds the world’s four leading practitioners of capital punishment – China, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.

China continues to execute more people than the rest of the world put together with at least 1000 people being put to death in 2013 alone. That same year Iran executed at least 369 people, Iraq put to death at least 169 people while Saudi Arabia executed at least 79. This does not include North Korea as figures are not available for the regime.

According to Amnesty International, in both Iraq and Iran many death sentences are issued after convictions relying on “confessions” from prisoners that have been obtained by force, often through torture while in detention.

“We have reliable information that prisoners later sent to Iraq’s death row have been beaten with cables, suspended by their arms, and subjected to electric shocks,” says Amnesty.


ODD ONE OUT

IN Europe, of the 49 independent states that are UN members or have UN observer status, 48 have abolished the death penalty, with the most recent abolition in 2012 when Latvia ended capital punishment in all circumstances.

Belarus is the only country in Europe to still carry out executions, maintaining the death penalty in both law and practice. As none were carried out in Belarus in 2009, this was the first year in recorded history when Europe was completely free of executions.

This century, countries in Europe that have ended the death penalty are: Ukraine (2000), Malta (2000), Cyprus (2002), Turkey (2004), Moldova (2005), Georgia (2006), Albania (2007), Russia (2009), and Latvia (2012).

Civil rights activists hope that one day the death penalty will be eradicated all over the world. Fighting to end it is The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, an alliance of more than 150 NGOs, lawyer associations, local authorities and unions, created in Rome in 2002.

To achieve its goal, the World Coalition advocates for a definitive end to death sentences and executions in those countries where the death penalty is in force. In some countries, it is seeking to obtain a reduction in the use of capital punishment as a first step towards abolition.

The coalition is working to achieve these aims by lobbying international organisations; organising international campaigns, including the World Day Against the Death Penalty, and supporting abolitionist forces.