Mississippi On Capital Punishment: Proposes Firing Squads and Gas Chambers
To protect their practice of utilizing the death penalty, Mississippi lawmakers proposed a bill that would turn to firing squads, gas chambers and electrocution to end the lives of death row inmates.
According to The Associated Press, House Bill 638 is meant to push back against “liberal, left-wing radicals” who disapprove of capital punishment.
The state currently depends on lethal injection, but multiple lawsuits claiming that the drugs used are a part of cruel and unusual punishment has brought the program to a halt. The death penalty hasn’t been used in Mississippi since 2012.
RELATED: Poll: Young adults support new efforts to curb gun violence
A total of 33 states use lethal injection as their preferred method of capital punishment. Only to states, Utah and Oklahoma, have the firing squad as an option while three have hanging, five have the gas chamber and eight have electrocution.
Republicans feel that if lethal injection isn’t allowed, a replacement needs to be implemented in order to make sure that the death penalty is still possible for the inmates on death row.
The bill has passed the state’s House or Representatives and will move on to the Senate for even more debate.
For now, both sides of the aisle will likely differ on this highly unethical and morally questionable issue until it’s time for a vote.