The Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Committee will consider a bill next week in Laramie that could end up abolishing the state’s death penalty law.
Currently states are having difficulty acquiring the chemicals to perform lethal injections, so the Judiciary Committee has been looking at other alternatives…including firing squads. But House Committee Chairman Keith Gingery says another alternative is to abolish the death penalty.
“I don’t think we are looking at all the alternatives, because one alternative is not to even have it. So I used my prerogative as chairman and asked staff to draft a bill to repeal the death penalty completely.”
Gingery said that he expects a very positive and thoughtful discussion.
“It’s a problem all the states are dealing with. Without those chemicals the normal way that death penalties have been performed in the past is not possible anymore.”
If the committee supports the bill, it would go to the full legislature for consideration in January. The state has not had an execution in over 20 years. The Judiciary Committee meets next week in Laramie.