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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Gov. Olene Walker has signed a bill banning executions on Sundays, Mondays or holidays as a cost-saving measure.
Executioners normally don't work weekends or holidays, when it costs $45,000 in overtime to carry out an execution, said Rep. DeMar Bowman, R-Cedar City, who sponsored the measure approved by the Utah Legislature on Feb. 19.
Mondays are out because it takes a full day to set up an execution, and that would require corrections officials to work on Sunday.
Walker has said she'll sign another bill passed by the Legislature that abolishes the firing squad as an option for condemned killers.
Walker has yet to sign that bill, which makes lethal injection the state's only method of capital punishment. But on Friday she added her signature to another four bills and one resolution from the legislative session that ended March 3:
--Senate Bill 32, which allows children who have asthma to carry their inhalers with them in school. It overrules some school districts that required students to keep their inhalers locked in a school office. Those districts believed they were complying with the state's zero-tolerance drug policy in schools.
--Senate Bill 4, which repeals a reward program for state employees who came up with suggestions for saving the state money.
--Senate Bill 79, which repeals the Division of Child and Family Services' ability to certify social workers for purposes of calculating benefits and salary ranges.
--A resolution urging Congress to cover 40 percent of the cost of educating disabled students and fulfill its commitment under the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975. The federal government pays only 18 percent of the cost of special education, the resolution says.
Walker has until March 23 to sign, veto or let become law without her signature 419 bills passed by the Legislature.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
