Wilkerson v. Utah, 99 U.S. 130 (1879), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court affirmed the judgment of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Utah in stating that execution by firing squad, as prescribed by the Utah territorial statute, was not cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Facts of the case
On November 22, 1877 Wallace Wilkerson was charged with premeditated murder for allegedly shooting and killing William Baxter, to which Wilkerson claimed innocence. Wilkerson was said to have had several disagreements with Baxter prior to the other man's death. Just two days after opening statements, Wilkerson was sentenced to die on December 14, 1877 by Judge P.H. Emerson. He was given a choice of execution between decapitation, hanging, and firing squad; Wilkerson elected to be executed by firing squad. The following year, Wilkerson appealed to the Supreme Court of Utah territory on the grounds that execution by firing squad presented unnecessary cruelty and unusual punishment. His lawyers, Hodge and Williams argued that because of the nature of firing squads, his 8th amendment right to protection from cruel and unusual punishment had been violated. The appeal was later struck down in the Supreme Court, where they upheld the initial decision of the First Court of the Territory of Utah. Justice Nathan Clifford delivered the opinion of the court. This decision would later be cited in Baze v. Rees (2008) in affirming that lethal injection was not cruel and unusual punishment under the 8th amendment. However, in finding the firing squad to be a constitutional means of execution, the Court also held that old English methods of execution such as disembowelment, beheading, and burning violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
Court's decision
A legislative act of Utah, passed March 6, 1862, states that a person convicted of a capital offense “shall suffer death by being shot, hanged, or beheaded,” decided by the court, or “he shall have his option as to the manner of his execution.” The Penal Code of 1876 then goes to state any person convicted of murder in the first degree “shall suffer death,” and “the several sections of this code, which declare certain crimes to be punishable as therein mentioned, devolve a duty upon the court authorized to pass sentence, to determine and impose the punishment prescribed.” The court ruled that death by firing squad was permissible, but it agreed that old English practices of execution where prisoners were “emboweled alive, beheaded, and quartered,” publicly dissected and burned alive were unconstitutional. The Utah Territory law did not provide a method of execution, that was what the court and judge decided. Wilkerson claimed that firing squad executions were unconstitutional. All proceedings were regulated and the record shows that the court decided Wilkerson will be taken to a district somewhere in the district on December 14 to carry out the execution in public.