Utah Senate narrowly passes death penalty repeal

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah senators on Wednesday voted to abolish the death penalty, advancing what had been considered a longshot proposal in the conservative state.

Lawmakers argued last year that if the state has a shortage of lethal injection drugs, it must still find a way to kill death row inmates.

Weiler also disputed a legislative study from 2012 that found capital punishment costs more taxpayer money than a sentence of life in prison without parole.

Other conservative Republicans speaking in favor of abolishing the practice said they have no problem in theory with the idea of killing someone for a heinous crime, but they fear that years of appeals render the death penalty ineffective and they worry the government could execute someone wrongly convicted.

Last year, Nebraska's Republican-controlled Legislature voted to abolish the death penalty over a veto from that state's GOP governor.