Posted on 02/10/2017 12:27:23 AM PST by Brad from Tennessee
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi lawmakers are advancing a proposal to add firing squad, electrocution and gas chamber as execution methods in case a court blocks the use of lethal injection drugs.
House Bill 638 is a response to lawsuits filed by "liberal, left-wing radicals," said House Judiciary B Committee Chairman Andy Gipson, a Republican.
The bill passed the House amid opposition Wednesday, and it moves to the Senate for more debate.
Lethal injection is Mississippi's only execution method. The state faces lawsuits claiming the drugs it plans to use would violate constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment.
Mississippi hasn't been able to acquire the execution drugs it once used, and it last carried out an execution in 2012. The state has 47 people on death row , and some have been there for decades.
The 33 states with the death penalty all have lethal injection as the primary method of execution, according to the Death Penalty Information Center . The center says only Oklahoma and Utah have firing squad as an option; eight states have electrocution as an option; five have gas chamber as an option; and three have hanging as an option.
"I have a constituent whose daughter was raped and killed by a serial killer over 25 years ago and that person's still waiting for the death penalty. The family is still waiting for justice," said Gipson, an attorney and Baptist pastor who lives in the small town of Braxton, about 25 miles south of Jackson. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
these threads seem to bring out all the ghouls.
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