Local state lawmakers are split over a bill working its way through the Legislature that attempts to reintroduce firing squads.
The Mississippi House of Representatives on Friday passed an amended version of Senate Bill 2237. The bill primarily aims to keep the identities of certain people involved in executions — including execution team members, lethal injection drug suppliers and family members of the victim or condemned — exempt from being released publicly.
The House, after taking the bill following Senate approval, made an amendment that would allow Mississippi to use firing squads as a method of execution.
Rep. Robert Foster (R-Hernando) introduced the amendment, which permits execution by firing squad if lethal injection is unavailable or the state deems it “too costly.”
District 37 Rep. Gary Chism (R-Columbus) told The Dispatch he supports the amendment. He also said Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood asked the Legislature to give him the option for execution by firing squad, electrocution or gas chamber.
Mississippi has executed 11 people since 2010, according to the state Department of Corrections. Gary Carl Simmons was the last person the state executed, according to MDOC. Simmons, convicted of capital murder, was killed by lethal injection in June 2012.
Chism told The Dispatch that he views firing squads as a viable alternative to lethal injection, which can be expensive.
“We know that you can buy enough bullets,” Chism said. “If for some reason the U.S. Supreme Court says that the drug cocktail is cruel and inhumane, we know that the firing squad is legal.”
Utah is currently the only state that uses firing squads.
Other representatives weren’t as warm to the idea.
“That’s Utah,” said District 38 Rep. Tyrone Ellis. “They do things their way and we do things our way. We moved from the electric chair and gas chamber to lethal injection, so why would we go and now go for a system to go back to the firing squad? I don’t quite understand that.”
Ellis, a Democrat from Starkville, said he believes firing squads are “barbaric” and believes Gov. Phil Bryant should veto the bill.
District 41 Rep. Kabir Karriem (D-Columbus) also voted against the amendment.
“I think it’s crazy,” Karriem said. “With all that we have discovered with capital punishment and so many people being found innocent, I don’t think it’s the right approach.”
Karriem, who said he opposes the death penalty, said he believes people who commit crimes should be punished. However, he said that the firing squad “isn’t the way to go.”
Still, Chism said he’s not worried about concerns from firing squad opponents. He said he thinks the state takes too long to execute death row inmates as is.
“I am tired of it taking years and years and years for someone that committed heinous crimes — and we’re talking about capital murder — before they’re executed,” Chism said. “The U.S. Supreme Court says that’s legal. Let’s get about executing the ones that are due to be executed instead of us spending millions of dollars defending their right to live when they had no consideration for the person they murdered.”
The Mississippi American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Jennifer Riley-Collins said in a statement that the organization is opposed to firing squad as proposed in SB 2237.
“The ACLU of (Mississippi) believes all current methods of capital punishment violate the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that outlaws cruel and unusual punishment,” Collins said. “The Mississippi State Legislature should use its energies to abolish the death penalty and should make greater efforts to ensure the judicial process is fair so that no innocent person faces an ultimate and final punishment.”
The Dispatch could not reach District 39 Rep. Jeff Smith (R-Columbus) by press time. Smith voted for the bill’s amended version.
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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