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'We actually know what's always humane': AZ lawmaker wants to bring back firing squads

Man in suit
Howard Fischer/Capitol Media Services
Arizona state Rep. Alexander Kolodin in 2024.

Calling the current system inhumane and problematic, a state lawmaker wants to give voters the chance to replace the current method of killing convicted murderers with the firing squad.

The proposal by Rep. Alexander Kolodin follows a preliminary report last year by a special "death penalty commissioner" hired by Gov. Katie Hobbs to look into how the state executes criminals by lethal injection. Retired federal magistrate David Duncan reported there is "no humane way" to do that.

And Duncan said if the state is to continue with executions, the most humane way of doing that is the firing squad.

So now Kolodin, a Scottsdale Republican, wants to put a measure on the 2026 ballot asking voters to approve the change.

Kolodin told Capitol Media Services that he believes in the death penalty. But he said the record shows that the current method of execution — one approved by voters in 1992 — is filled with problems.

"I don't know what it is," he said. "But lethal injection just seems to be incredibly complicated where it always leads to these delays and these hiccups and whatever."

Kolodin said just preparing for an execution itself creates issues.

The state has had trouble in prior years even in obtaining lethal chemicals.

In 2015, for example, Arizona ordered 1,000 vials of sodium thiopental, a muscle relaxant used in the process, from a supplier in India, after a domestic manufacturer refused to sell it for executions.

That came despite warning from the federal Food and Drug Administration that such importation would be illegal. And it ended up with Customs and Border Protection seizing the drugs at Sky Harbor International Airport.

The state now uses a different drug. But even that has issues: It not only has to be compounded but has a limited shelf life.

Then there's the process itself.

Hobbs appointed Duncan after what she said were a series of "botched" executions, including reports by witnesses of both pain and bleeding as state employees had trouble inserting the necessary intravenous line.

In the interim, Attorney General Kris Mayes said she would not seek any warrants of execution until the report was done.

Duncan, in his preliminary report, said the state should consider using a firing squad, saying it results in near instantaneous death. He said it "does overcome the impediments to lethal injection from unavailability of material and skilled personnel."

The governor subsequently fired Duncan, saying that suggestion was beyond the purview of what he was supposed to study. But Kolodin said it's time to take that report seriously.

"We actually know what's always humane and always seems to work properly, which is the firing squad," he said.

"And this has actually been known for a long time," Kolodin continued. "I'm surprised that Hobbs fired the guy for saying so because people who have at least a reasonable amount of exposure to criminal law already know this."

He said that using this method could end some of the litigation about the method of execution that can results in death penalty cases dragging out for years, if not decades.

"We would not have all of these freakin' legal hang-ups in terms of delivering capital punishment," Kololdin said.

"And it would be far more humane," he continued. "So why don't we just do it that way?"

Hobbs has not discussed her own personal feelings about both the death penalty and the method it is administered in Arizona. In fact, what she thinks is legally irrelevant.

First, the method of execution is spelled out in the Arizona Constitution. And that can be changed only with voter approval, a process that bypasses the governor.

Second, the governor plays no role in the process. Instead, that rests with Mayes who has to be the one to ask the Arizona Supreme Court for a warrant to execute someone.

A spokesman for Mayes said she opposes what Kolodin is proposing.

"The attorney general supports the current protocol," said press aid Richie Taylor of the use of lethal injection.

He also said that Mayes has reviewed a report by Ryan Thornell, director of the Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Release. He said he has reviewed and revamped the execution process.

Based on that, Richie said, his boss is convinced that the agency, going forward, can use lethal injection in a humane fashion to execute inmates.

That first execution could occur on March 18 if the Supreme Court grants Mayes' request to execute Aaron Gunches. He has been on death row since pleading guilty to the 2022 murder and kidnapping of Ted Price, his girlfriend's ex-husband.

Arizona initially executed inmates by hanging. That was changed to use of lethal gas in 1934.

But voters approved changing to lethal injection in 1992 after Donald Eugene Hardin took more than 10 minutes to die after cyanide pellets were dropped into sulfuric acid in a bowl beneath his chair. Witnesses said that Harding gasped, shuddering and tried to make obscene gestures with his both of his hands strapped down.

There was one execution by gas after that: Walter LaGrand in 1999. Having been sentenced before the 1992 change, he had the option of choosing lethal gas which he did in a protest against the death penalty.

What Kolodin is proposing is further amending that provision to make the firing squad the only legal method.

Several states authorize firing squads, including Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah. Idaho became the latest state added to the list in 2023, though the law says that is authorized only if the state cannot obtain the drugs needed for lethal injection.

Kolodin's proposal, based on his assessment of what is humane, contains no such condition.