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The proposal by Rep. Alexander Kolodin follows a preliminary report last year by a special “death penalty commissioner’’ hired by Gov. Katie Hobbs to look into how the state executes criminals by lethal injection. Retired federal magistrate David Duncan reported there is “no humane way’’ to kill someone using that method.

Duncan said if the state is to continue with executions, the most humane method is the firing squad.

So now Kolodin, a Scottsdale Republican, wants to put a measure on the 2026 ballot asking voters to approve the change.

Kolodin said he believes in the death penalty, but that the record shows the current method — approved by voters in 1992 — is filled with problems.

“I don’t know what it is. But lethal injection just seems to be incredibly complicated where it always leads to these delays and these hiccups and whatever,� he said.

Kolodin said just preparing for an execution itself creates issues.

The state has had trouble in prior years even obtaining the lethal chemicals.

In 2015, for example, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ ordered 1,000 vials of sodium thiopental, a muscle relaxant used in the process, from a supplier in India, after a domestic manufacturer refused to sell it for executions.

That came despite warning from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that such importation would be illegal. It ended up with Customs and Border Protection seizing the drugs at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix.

The state now uses a different drug, but it also presents issues: It not only has to be compounded but has a limited shelf life.

Then there’s the process itself.

Hobbs appointed Duncan after what she said was a series of “botched’’ executions, including reports by witnesses of pain and bleeding as state employees had trouble inserting the necessary intravenous line.

In the interim, Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes said she would not seek any warrants of execution until the report was done.

Duncan, in his preliminary report, said the state should consider using a firing squad because it results in near-instantaneous death. He said it “does overcome the impediments to lethal injection from unavailability of material and skilled personnel.’’

The Democratic governor subsequently fired Duncan, saying that suggestion was beyond the purview of what he was supposed to study. But Kolodin said it’s time to take the report seriously.

“We actually know what’s always humane and always seems to work properly, which is the firing squad,’’ he said. “And this has actually been known for a long time. I’m surprised that Hobbs fired the guy for saying so because people who have at least a reasonable amount of exposure to criminal law already know this.’’

He said using that method could end some of the litigation about the method of execution that can result in death penalty cases dragging out for years, if not decades.

“We would not have all of these freakin’ legal hang-ups in terms of delivering capital punishment,’’ Kololdin said.

“And it would be far more humane,’’ he continued. “So why don’t we just do it that way?’’

Hobbs has not discussed her personal feelings about the death penalty and the method it is administered in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥. And in fact, what she thinks is legally irrelevant.

First, the method of execution is spelled out in the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Constitution. It can be changed only with voter approval, a process that bypasses the governor.

Second, the governor plays no role in the process. Instead, that rests with the attorney general, who has to be the one to ask the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Supreme Court for a warrant to execute someone.

A spokesman for Mayes said she opposes what Kolodin is proposing.

“The attorney general supports the current protocol,’’ said her press aid Richie Taylor of the use of lethal injection.

He also said Mayes has reviewed a report by Ryan Thornell, director of the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Release. He said he has reviewed and revamped the execution process.

Based on that, Richie said, Mayes is convinced that the agency, going forward, can use lethal injection in a humane fashion to execute inmates.

That first execution could occur on March 18 if the Supreme Court grants Mayes’ request to execute Aaron Gunches. He has been on death row since pleading guilty to the 2022 murder and kidnapping of Ted Price, his girlfriend’s ex-husband.

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ initially executed inmates by hanging. That was changed to the use of lethal gas in 1934.

Voters approved changing to lethal injection in 1992 after Donald Eugene Hardin took more than 10 minutes to die after cyanide pellets were dropped into sulfuric acid in a bowl beneath his chair. Witnesses said Harding gasped, shuddered and tried to make obscene gestures with both of his hands strapped down.

There was one execution by gas after that: Walter LaGrand in 1999. Having been sentenced before the 1992 change, he had the option of choosing lethal gas, which he did in what he called a protest against the death penalty.

Hardin's experience led to the voter-approved constitutional amendment in 1992 replacing the gas chamber method with lethal injection. Kolodin proposes further amending that provision to make firing squad the only legal method.

Several states authorize firing squads, including Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah. Idaho became the latest state added to the list in 2023, though its law says that is authorized only if the state cannot obtain the drugs needed for lethal injection.

Kolodin’s proposal, based on his assessment of what is humane, contains no such condition.