Utah’s death penalty methods are lethal injection by default and a firing squad as the statutory backup.1Utah Legislature. Utah Code 77-18-113 – Judgment of Death – Method Is Lethal Injection – Exceptions for Use of Firing Squad The firing squad replaces injection only under conditions the legislature has spelled out: a court ruling that injection is unconstitutional, a finding that the state cannot lawfully obtain the drugs in time, or an eligible inmate’s pre-2004 election. Utah is one of the very few states that still authorizes death by firing squad, and it revived the option in 2015 to keep drug shortages from stalling executions.
When Each Method Applies
Lethal injection is the default. The statute lists four scenarios in which a firing squad takes its place.1Utah Legislature. Utah Code 77-18-113 – Judgment of Death – Method Is Lethal Injection – Exceptions for Use of Firing Squad
- Pre-2004 election: Inmates sentenced for crimes committed before Utah eliminated the firing-squad option in 2004 may have a court-recognized right to choose the firing squad if they made that election under the prior law. This grandfather provision is how Utah’s last two firing-squad executions came about.
- Lethal injection ruled unconstitutional on its face: If any court holds that lethal injection itself violates the constitution, the firing squad becomes the method for all defendants.
- Lethal injection ruled unconstitutional as applied: If a court finds that lethal injection would be unconstitutional for a particular defendant, the firing squad replaces it for that individual only.
- Drug unavailability: If the sentencing court determines that the state cannot lawfully obtain lethal-injection drugs at least 30 days before the scheduled execution date, the method switches to the firing squad.
The drug-unavailability provision was added by the legislature in 2015 as a direct response to the growing difficulty states face in purchasing execution drugs.2Utah Legislature. HB0011 – Firing Squad Amendments When the state invokes it, the sentencing court holds a hearing where corrections officials present evidence about their efforts to acquire the drugs. The judge then decides whether those efforts were sufficient and whether the 30-day threshold has been met.
How Lethal Injection Is Carried Out
Utah law requires the Department of Corrections to select at least two trained personnel to administer continuous intravenous injections, one of which must contain a lethal quantity of sodium thiopental “or other equally or more effective substance sufficient to cause death.”3Justia Law. Utah Code 77-19-10 – Judgment of Death – Location and Procedures for Execution That language gives the state flexibility in choosing which drugs to use.
Utah’s most recent execution, in August 2024, used two doses of pentobarbital rather than the traditional three-drug combination that many states have historically employed. Earlier planning for that same execution had considered a protocol of ketamine, fentanyl, and potassium chloride before officials settled on pentobarbital. The shift tracks a national move toward single-drug barbiturate protocols, partly because the paralytic and cardiac-arrest drugs used in older three-drug sequences have become harder to obtain and have drawn constitutional challenges.
Whichever drug is chosen, the procedure follows the same basic framework. IV lines are inserted into the inmate, heart monitors track vital signs throughout, and trained staff administer the injection according to a documented protocol. A physician certifies death once the process is complete.3Justia Law. Utah Code 77-19-10 – Judgment of Death – Location and Procedures for Execution The physician does not participate in the execution itself.
How the Firing Squad Is Carried Out
The statute directs the executive director of the Department of Corrections, or a designee, to select a five-person squad composed of certified peace officers.4Utah Legislature. Utah Code 77-19-10 – Sentence of Death – Location and Procedures for Execution Squad members volunteer for the assignment and must demonstrate firearms proficiency under conditions that mirror the actual execution.
Under Utah’s execution protocol, the squad uses .30-caliber rifles fired from a minimum distance of 25 feet. The shooters fire from behind a partition with gun ports, so they can aim without being fully visible to the inmate or witnesses. The execution team leader loads each rifle with two rounds, and at least one rifle is loaded with what the protocol alternately describes as blank rounds or wax bullets. No squad member knows which weapon carries the non-lethal load. The design makes it impossible for any individual shooter to know with certainty whether they fired a fatal shot.
The inmate is seated in a specially constructed chair with restraints. A hood is placed over the inmate’s head, and a small circular target is pinned directly over the heart. On a countdown, the squad fires in a synchronized volley.
Why Execution Drugs Are Hard to Get
The drug-shortage problem driving Utah’s firing-squad provisions is not unique to the state. It stems from two reinforcing pressures. The European Union has banned the export of drugs used in lethal injections, cutting off the primary international source for sodium thiopental and similar barbiturates. On top of that, a federal court permanently barred the FDA from allowing importation of foreign-manufactured sodium thiopental, ruling it was an unapproved and misbranded drug. That injunction remains in effect despite a later Department of Justice memo arguing the FDA lacks jurisdiction over execution drugs.
Domestic pharmaceutical manufacturers have also increasingly refused to sell their products for use in executions, either voluntarily or under pressure from shareholders and advocacy groups. The combined effect has forced states to find compounding pharmacies willing to prepare the drugs, experiment with alternative drug protocols, or turn to non-pharmaceutical methods entirely. Utah’s authorization of the firing squad as a statutory backup is among the more distinctive responses to that pressure.
Which Crimes Can Lead to Execution in Utah
Only aggravated murder can carry a death sentence in Utah, which is an intentional killing committed under specific aggravating circumstances listed in the statute.5Utah Legislature. Utah Code 76-5-202 – Aggravated Murder A standard murder conviction, no matter how serious, cannot result in a death sentence. Common aggravators include killing during another serious felony (such as robbery, rape, kidnapping, arson, burglary, or aggravated sexual assault), killing two or more people in the same criminal episode, murder for hire, killing to avoid arrest or escape custody, homicide committed while confined in jail or prison, and prior convictions for specified violent felonies.
Even when an aggravating circumstance exists, a jury still decides whether to impose the death penalty or life in prison. The fact that a killing qualifies as aggravated murder does not guarantee a death sentence.
Challenging an Execution Method
Inmates can challenge their method of execution under the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, but the legal bar is steep. In Glossip v. Gross (2015), the U.S. Supreme Court held that a prisoner must show two things: that the method creates a substantial risk of severe pain, and that a known, available alternative would significantly reduce that risk.6Justia U.S. Supreme Court. Glossip v Gross, 576 US 863 (2015) A prisoner cannot simply argue that an execution method is painful. They must also identify a specific, workable alternative the state has refused to adopt.
Bucklew v. Precythe (2019) tightened the standard further, holding that the proposed alternative must be not just theoretically feasible but “readily implemented,” meaning the state could carry it out “relatively easily and reasonably quickly.”7Supreme Court of the United States. Bucklew v Precythe, 587 US 119 (2019) That two-part test applies to challenges against both lethal injection and firing squad. Utah’s statute also addresses the constitutional question directly: if a court rules lethal injection unconstitutional either on its face or as applied to a particular inmate, the firing squad automatically becomes the mandated method.1Utah Legislature. Utah Code 77-18-113 – Judgment of Death – Method Is Lethal Injection – Exceptions for Use of Firing Squad
Recent and Pending Executions
The last firing-squad execution in Utah was that of Ronnie Lee Gardner in June 2010. Gardner exercised his right to choose the method because his crime predated Utah’s 2004 elimination of the firing-squad option. Five law enforcement officers fired .30-caliber rifles from behind a brick wall at a distance of 25 feet. Before Gardner, John Albert Taylor also chose the firing squad over lethal injection when he was executed in 1996.
In August 2024, Taberon Honie was executed by lethal injection using pentobarbital, the state’s first execution in 14 years. That execution showed Utah could still obtain and use lethal-injection drugs, though the specific protocol changed multiple times during the planning process.
As of late 2025, four men remain on Utah’s death row. The closest-watched case is Ralph Menzies, whose execution by firing squad was scheduled for September 2025 before the Utah Supreme Court vacated the execution warrant and sent the case back to the trial court. If his execution is eventually rescheduled, it would be the first firing-squad execution in the state since 2010 and the first carried out under the 2015 drug-unavailability provision rather than a pre-2004 inmate election.