Chesie Lee, executive director of the Wyoming Association of Churches, will speak in favor of repealing the death penalty.

“Revenge is not what we’re called to do,” she said. “It’s not that we oppose punishment alogether, but revenge is not the answer.”

Current law allows the death penalty as a sentence for first-degree murder.

Gingery ordered the committee’s nonpartisan staff to draft a bill at a July meeting in Newcastle. Reps. Stephen Watt, R-Rock Springs, and Marti Halverson, R- Etna, supported the effort the most among the committee members, Gingery said.

In May, the committee ordered staff members to draft the firing squad bill.

The meeting will be the last time the Judiciary Committee will discuss it before next year’s session, which convenes Jan. 13, Gingery said.

“My guess is we will vote out the firing squad one, that will move on,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll get enough votes for getting rid of the death penalty. That’s our last meeting of the year, so it either happens or it doesn’t happen.