Florida Republicans open door to firing squads, lethal gas as they push death penalty expansion

A bill filed in the Florida state Senate would expand the methods by which death row inmates could be executed. 

Senate Bill 1604, introduced by state Sen. Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, aims to protect Florida’s status as a death penalty state if certain execution methods like electrocution or legal injection are made unconstitutional by the Supreme Court or the Florida Supreme Court, or if lethal injection drugs are unable to be obtained in the future.

There is currently a shortage of pentobarbital, the drug used for lethal injections, which has several states scrambling to find alternative execution methods. 

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If that happens in Florida, the bill mandates that “all persons sentenced to death for a capital crime shall be executed by a method not deemed unconstitutional.”

Martin told the Tampa Bay Times that his legislation will ensure that the state fulfills the law and follows through on executions. 

Tuesday, the bill passed through the Florida Senate’s Committee on Criminal Justice. 

Wednesday, state Rep. Berny Jaques, R-Largo, introduced a companion bill in the Florida House of Representatives. 

“I filed House Bill 903 because I believe government’s primary role is to protect public safety, and the death penalty plays a vital part in that,” Jaques told Fox News Digital. “This bill ensures Florida can uphold constitutional death sentences without delay by giving the Department of Corrections the flexibility to use any lawful method if current options become unavailable.”

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A chair sits in the execution chamber at the Utah State Prison on June 18, 2010, after Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by firing squad in Draper, Utah. (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool, File)

The bill does not specify which alternative execution methods could be used, but eight states already authorize the use of some form of lethal gas as a backup to lethal injection, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. In four of those states – Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma – nitrogen gas is specifically named as the deadly chemical agent used in such executions. 

Four other states allow death by firing squad as an alternative to lethal injection, and South Carolina allows it as an alternative to electrocution, its default method of execution. 

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In March, death row inmate Brad Sigmon of South Carolina was executed by firing squad. He was the first person in the United States to be executed in that manner in more than 15 years. 

Brad Sigmon was convicted of beating to death his estranged girlfriend’s parents in Greenville County in 2001. (South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP)

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Lethal injection is by far the most popular execution method, accounting for 1,431 of all executions since 1976. Electrocution is second, accounting for 163.