The Utah lawmaker who plans to introduce a proposal to bring back the firing squad as a death penalty option explained on Monday why he thinks it’s more humane than other options like lethal injection.
Fox News host Sean Hannity asked state Rep. Paul Ray (R) about the accuracy of firing squads.
“After what happened in Oklahoma, I mean, you’re not going to mess up a firing squad, right?” Hannity asked.
“The only mess-up we had was in 1897, and we’ve got it right every time since then,” Ray responded.
He explained that the the state could fall back on a firing squad if a court rules that the lethal injection can no longer be used or if the state is unable to obtain the drug cocktail.
Ray then argued that the botched Oklahoma execution still worked, even though the inmate died of a heart attack.
“I don’t know if you can call it botched because he still died,” he said.
“And I don’t feel bad the guy suffered. I mean, look what he did to that little girl,” the lawmaker added after Hannity jumped in to say that the lethal injection didn’t work.
Hannity then asked Ray how it’s possible to improperly perform an execution.
“What I don’t understand is how you screw that up. You could have given him a hot shot of heroin and he would have died. I mean, anything. That doesn’t seem that hard to me,” Hannity said.
“You’re dealing with people who don’t have the expertise on this, and it’s a new cocktail,” Ray responded about doctors who give lethal injections.
Watch the video via Raw Story:
This post has been updated.
