A Republican proposal that would amend the Arizona Constitution to execute prisoners by firing squad instead of lethal injection passed its first hurdle Tuesday.
If the measure ultimately passes both chambers of the legislature, it would go before voters in 2026.
The sponsor, Scottsdale Republican Rep. Alexander Kolodin, repeatedly told the House Committee on Regulatory Oversight his House Concurrent Resolution 2024 was inspired by an independent review of the death penalty that Gov. Katie Hobbs commissioned, and later spiked.
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That draft report, written by retired federal Magistrate Judge David Duncan, detailed the numerous problems the state has encountered when trying to procure the drug used for lethal injections. Hobbs hired Duncan in January 2023, shortly after she took office and fired him in November 2024.
The last execution performed by the state was done during the administration of Republican Gov. Doug Ducey.
Multiple judges and advocates, including Duncan, have spoken about the use of firing squads and recommended them as a way to continue executions in a more humane manner. Duncan concluded that, although lethal injection appears to be painless and humane, the reality is that it is “fundamentally unreliable, unworkable and unacceptably prone to errors.”
Duncan also noted that executions are “a violent act in every case.”
And Kolodin also cited retired federal judge Alex Kozinski, who in 2014 wrote in the Wall Street Journal that the firing squad should be reinstated because it was “foolproof,” unlike lethal injection.
“What I hear from these two judges is, if we are going to have these executions, we should drop the pretense, look it in the face,” Jeanne Woodbury, a lobbyist representing the ACLU said to the committee. “No matter the method, the death penalty is cruel and inhumane.”
The committee also heard from Conservatives Concerned About The Death Penalty, a conservative advocacy group that has been urging state lawmakers across the country to rethink capital punishment.
Nicholas Cote, the group’s states strategist, told the committee that Kolodin’s proposal does not address the “real and immediate problem” that is impacting the lethal injection process: The drug used to conduct the state’s executions is shrouded in secrecy, leading to issues with procurement and transparency.
“Putting this in the constitution seems like a real problem,” Cote said, adding that firing squads have been used less than five times in the modern era, mainly in Utah where the method was reinstated in 2015.
Other states are also looking at bringing back the firing squad as a method of execution, including Idaho, where lawmakers are trying to make it the default form of execution. Recently, an inmate in Georgia lost a petition to have his death penalty sentence be imposed by a firing squad as opposed to lethal injection. President Donald Trump has also signaled his support of the method.
Lawmakers also heard from a woman who previously worked as a correctional officer who worried about the emotional impact that death by firing squad would have on correctional officers.
“I have taken a life, and I promise you, it never goes away,” Tucson resident and veteran Courtney Quinones-Machado told the committee. Quinones-Machado said she has “chronic nightmares” from PTSD she received from her time in the military.
“I do not believe we need to traumatize correctional officers,” she said, adding that retention rates for correctional officers in the state are already low and making them participate in firing squad executions could worsen that.
But Republicans seemed unfazed by the concerns.
“What I have to say is this: Katie, if you are not capable of carrying out executions that the people of Arizona want you to carry out because lethal injection is too hard for you, then we are giving you an easy way to do it,” Kolodin said, directly addressing the governor.
Shortly after firing Duncan late last year, Hobbs’ administration moved to quickly execute Aaron Gunches, who murdered a man in 2002. The Arizona Supreme Court last week issued a death warrant, and Gunches is set to be put to death next month.
For committee chairman Rep. Joseph Chaplik, the method of execution comes down to the bottom line, and using a firing squad would be cheaper than procuring lethal injection drugs.
“I think … it is a lot less expensive to do as well, and our job is to cut the budget of the state here,” the Scottsdale Republican said.
Kolodin’s proposal would retain existing language in the constitution that would allow death row inmates who committed a crime prior to Nov. 23, 1992, to choose to die in the gas chamber instead.
The measure passed along party lines and will head to the full House for a vote next. If passed out of both chambers, it will head to the ballot in 2026.
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