Utah lawmakers have until day's end to vote on death penalty

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah lawmakers are nearing their deadline to decide if they want to abolish the death penalty in the conservative state.

Thursday is the final day of the 2016 legislative session, and lawmakers have until midnight to vote.

The measure was originally considered a longshot in Utah's GOP-dominated Legislature, but it cleared the Senate and then squeaked through a House committee this week.

If it passes the full House, it will head to Republican Gov. Gary Herbert, who supports capital punishment and says he hasn't decided whether he'll sign it.

The debate comes amid a renewed national discussion about capital punishment.

A shortage of lethal-injection drugs in the U.S. in recent years has led several states to pass or consider laws to bring back other execution methods, such as electrocution. Last year, Utah lawmakers voted to reinstate firing squads as a backup method to ensure the state had a way to kill death row inmates if it couldn't get lethal-injection drugs.

Republican Sen. Steve Urquhart is leading the push to repeal capital punishment in the state. He argues the death penalty is costly and gives imperfect governments a godlike power over life and death.

Urquhart initially was doubtful of his proposal's chances because of the strong support for capital punishment in the state. But in recent weeks, he said he believed the libertarian-leaning Legislature would pass the measure.

Death penalty supporters argue Urquhart's repeal would leave prosecutors shortchanged at the bargaining table, where the possibility of execution helps them negotiate plea deals of life without parole.

Other critics said the death penalty is a just punishment for especially heinous crimes.

The bill would allow executions to go forward for the nine people on Utah's death row now but remove it as an option for any new convictions.

Utah is the only state in four decades to carry out executions by firing squad, with three such deaths since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.

State lawmakers stopped offering inmates the choice of the firing squad in 2004, saying the method attracted intense media interest and took away attention from victims. But they resurrected it last year, making the practice available for all death row inmates if lethal-injection drugs cannot be obtained 30 days before their execution.

Most Utah lawmakers are Mormon, but the firing-squad effort didn't seem linked to any teachings or doctrine from the Salt Lake City-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Mormon church takes a neutral position on capital punishment.

Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have abolished capital punishment, and lawmakers, including Republicans, in more than half a dozen other states have suggested their states do the same.

Last year, Nebraska's Republican-controlled Legislature voted to abolish the death penalty over a veto from that state's GOP governor.

It became the first traditionally conservative state to eliminate the punishment since North Dakota dropped the practice in 1973. But death penalty supporters quickly launched a petition drive, leaving Nebraska voters to decide the issue this November.