Idaho Governor Brad Little recently signed a bill designating the firing squad as the preferred method of execution for capital punishment in the state. This action makes Idaho the only state in the U.S. to have a firing squad as a designated method of execution, with the law set to take effect next year. The decision comes shortly after a man in South Carolina was executed by firing squad for killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat in 2001. The volunteer prison employees took nearly three minutes to officially pronounce him dead. Idaho currently has nine prisoners on death row, though the state has not carried out any executions in over a dozen years.
Last year, Idaho faced issues with carrying out the death penalty when one of the longest-serving death row inmates in the country failed to be executed by lethal injection due to medical personnel being unable to establish an IV line after trying for an hour. Governor Little approved a law in 2023 to add execution by firing squad as a backup method, but stated that his preference was still for lethal injection at the time. With this new bill, Idaho becomes the fifth state in the country to legalize the use of a firing squad as an execution method, following Utah, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Mississippi. The bill also maintains lethal injection as the backup method.
The bill was supported by over two-thirds of the Republican-controlled legislature in Idaho. The sponsor of the bill, Rep. Bruce Skaug, emphasized that the failed lethal injection attempt from the previous year illustrated the problems with that method. The newly legalized execution method could impact the state’s eight current death row inmates, as well as future cases such as that of Bryan Kohberger, a college murder suspect whose trial is upcoming. Prosecutors have indicated that they will seek the death penalty for Kohberger if he is convicted, with the trial scheduled for later in the year. The bill signing coincides with this upcoming trial.
Experts have weighed in on the decision, with some stating that the move to resurrect the firing squad in Idaho makes sense as it is considered the quickest and surest death penalty option. This method could expedite the execution process, which has been halted in the state for many years due to complications and issues with the lethal injection method. While the decision to designate the firing squad as the preferred method of execution may be controversial, it represents a shift towards finding more effective and reliable means of carrying out the death penalty in Idaho. Governor Little’s office has been reached out for comment on this significant change in the state’s execution procedures.
