Utah firing squad execution halted

Archuleta's execution was stayed pending a federal appeal.

Michael Archuleta won’t face the firing squad this week.

Archuleta pursued an appeal in federal court which required a U.S. District Judge to sign a stay of execution.

Utah is one of few states that allow inmates to choose the method of their execution. Before it discontinued the process in 2004 Utah death row inmates were allowed to choose between lethal injection or firing squad at the time of their sentencing.

Michael Anthony Archuleta was sentenced to death after he and Lance Conway Wood beating 28-year-old Gordon Ray Church to death and burying him in a shallow grave in 1988. Shortly after the crime Wood confessed and led police to the body, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Eight executions scheduled for April

With eight executions scheduled for the month of April, it is the busiest month so far in 2012 for U.S. death row inmates.

April 5th, 2012 – Utah

Archuleta is only the fourth person to face the firing squad since 1976.

The first execution scheduled is Thursday for Michael Archuleta in the state of Utah. While a stay is likely in his execution (as he still has an appeal option in his case), he is different because unlike the other inmates scheduled to die this month, his will be executed by firing squad. Up until 2004 Utah death row inmates were given the option of execution at the time of their sentencing.

Archuleta was sentenced to death for the murder of 28-year-old Gordon Ray Church in which he was beaten to death with a tire iron.

April 12th, 2012 – Alabama and Oklahoma

Grayson was 18-years-old at the time of the crime.

There are two executions scheduled on this day. The first lethal injection is scheduled for Carey Grayson in Alabama. Grayson, 18 at the time of his crime was part of a group of teens that murdered 37-year-old hitchhiker Vickie Deblieux. He and a group of other teenage friends picked up Deblieux and stopped in a wooded area to drink and do drugs. When she tried to run away they attacked her, choked her to death and then threw her body off a cliff. They then climbed down the cliff and mutilated her body by cutting off her fingers, stabbing her and cutting out her lung. Grayson’s accomplices, 17-years-old at the time of the crime were given life sentences.

Allen's sanity has been questioned leading up to his execution.

The other scheduled execution is for Garry Allen. Allen was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Gail Titsworth, his girlfriend at the time and mother to his two sons. After a confrontation in front of a day care center, he shot her in the chest. After a day care worker approached to help, she was shot as well. While there is no question as to Allen’s guilt, his case had been stayed to assess his sanity and while the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole board had recommended clemency, Governor Fallin had rejected the recommendation.

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Utah inmate chooses firing squad as execution method

Michael A. Archuleta is schedule to be executed on April 5th, and if he has his way, it will be by firing squad.

Archuleta, along with an accomplice, tortured and beat to death Gordon Ray Church after they found out he was gay.

The last person in the United States to be executed by firing squad was Ronnie Lee Gardner, Utah, in 2010. Archuleta will only be the third person in the United States to die by firing squad since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

In Utah, when convicts are given a death sentence they are given the option at the time of sentencing to choose a method of execution, lethal injection or firing squad. Archuleta did not choose an option at the time of his sentencing, and while the state has the legal right to choose for him, they allowed him to choose firing squad.

In the state of Utah firing squads are comprised of five anonymous marksmen, each with a identical .30 calibre rifle. They all stand behind a wall 25 feet from the condemned with two holes for the rifles to be placed. One of the five rifles will hold a blank round. The inmate is then blindfolded, strapped to a chair and has a target pinned to his chest.

While April 5 is Archuleta’s execution date, he still has not exhausted all appeals and he will likely get a stay.