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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A bill that could make conservative Utah the 20th state to end capital punishment will get a final vote this week after a legislative committee approved the bill Tuesday night.
The proposal cleared a committee in Utah's House of Representatives by a single vote after a lawmaker who initially cast a vote against it realized he meant to approve the measure and switched his vote.
It now faces a final vote before Utah's full House sometime before lawmakers adjourn at midnight Thursday. If approved, it heads to the desk of Gov. Gary Herbert.
Herbert, a Republican, has said he's in favor of capital punishment in extreme cases, but he hasn't decided yet if he'd veto the measure if lawmakers approve it.
Republican Sen. Steve Urquhart is leading the push to abolish the practice. He says the delays and costs associated with executions make it an ineffective punishment, and he's not sure the government should be in the business of killing people.
Urquhart initially said it would be an uphill battle to pass the measure, but he now thinks lawmakers might pass it.
It's unclear how many supporters the measure has in the GOP-controlled House, but Urquhart has a key backer in Republican House Speaker Greg Hughes.
The proposal comes a year after lawmakers voted to reinstate the use of the firing squad as a backup execution method. The Legislature argued last year that if the state has a shortage of lethal injection drugs, it must still find a way to kill death row inmates.
Critics of Urquhart's bill argue that the death penalty is a just punishment for some heinous crimes.
Other death penalty supporters say the punishment should remain on the table to give prosecutors leverage in negotiating plea bargains.
Last year, Nebraska's Republican-controlled Legislature voted to abolish the death penalty over a veto from that state's GOP governor.
It became the first traditionally conservative state to eliminate the punishment since North Dakota dropped the practice in 1973. Death penalty supporters quickly launched a petition drive, leaving Nebraska voters to decide the issue this November.
Proposals to repeal capital punishment have been introduced in at least eight other states over the past year, though it's unclear how many are anywhere close to joining 19 states and the District of Columbia in abolishing the practice.
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