Utah prosecutors have reluctantly allowed a condemned killer to seek execution by firing squad rather than by lethal injection, saying they want to avoid further delays in putting him to death.
The request by Michael Archuleta, 49, convicted of the 1988 slaying of a college student, follows recent talks among state lawmakers and criminal justice officials about possibly returning to firing squads as an execution option in light of the current shortage of lethal-injection drugs.
If Archuleta gets his way, he would ultimately become only the fourth to be executed by shooting in the United States - all of them in Utah - since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. The last was in June 2010.
Utah, the last state to carry out executions by rifle volley, officially did away with the practice in 2004 under pressure from death penalty opponents and human rights activists who vehemently opposed firing squads as barbaric.
But the statute to abolish firing squads carved out an exemption for those death row inmates, like Archuleta, who had already requested it as their preferred manner of execution.
Approving Archuleta's request on Wednesday, state District Court Judge Donald Eyre Jr. signed an execution warrant ordering him to be put to death by firing squad on April 5.
Archuleta was convicted in 1989 of first-degree murder for the 1988 beating death of Gordon Church, who was kidnapped and sexually abused during the slaying. Read more: http://news.mobile.msn.com/en-us/art...6349943&afid=1