Representative Paul Ray's "firing squad bill" has already brought plenty of unwanted negative international attention to our state.  This bill would allow Utah to revert back to using the firing squad as a method of carrying out state-sponsored murder, should lethal injection drugs prove unavailable when we next carry out the death penalty in the state.

Take action NOW! Ask Governor Herbert to protect Utah's reputation, as well as the integrity of our criminal justice system, by VETOING HB 11!

Talking about which methods of execution to use in Utah, merely distracts us from discussing the systemic injustices and inequities that plague every other execution that takes place in this country, regardless of method, and which delegitimize the death penalty system in Utah and across the nation. In Utah and across the country, decisions about who lives and who dies are largely dependent upon the skill of their attorneys, the race of the defendants and of their victim, the defendant’s socioeconomic status and where the crime took place. Such infrequent, arbitrary and discriminatory administration of the death penalty is the very definition of a failed system.

Please tell Governor Herbert to REJECT HB 11! Ask him, in the spirit of evidence-based criminal justice reform, to work toward ending this failed experiment called the death penalty.

Thank you for joining us in this important action.

The ACLU of Utah’s letter to Gov. Herbert asking him to veto HB 11, “Death Penalty Procedure Amendments” >>

P.S. Learn more about our legislative, public education, advocacy and litigation efforts in our most recent newsletter.