Idaho becomes the latest state to permit execution by firing squad : NPR
Idaho Governor Brad Little delivers his 2023 State of the State address at the Idaho State Capitol in Boise in January. A new law allows executions by firing squad when lethal injections are not available.
Kyle Green/AP
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Idaho Governor Brad Little delivers his 2023 State of the State address at the Idaho State Capitol in Boise in January. A new law allows executions by firing squad when lethal injections are not available.
Kyle Green/AP
Idaho could soon use firing squads to execute death row inmates if lethal injectable drugs aren’t available, under new law signed into law last week.
On Friday, Republican Gov. Brad Little signed House Bill 186 that would allow state prison officials to carry out executions using a method not used in the United States for more than a decade.
“For the people on death row, they were convicted by a jury of their crimes, and they were lawfully sentenced to death,” Little said in a letter after signing the law.
“It is the responsibility of the state of Idaho to obey the law and ensure that lawful criminal convictions are carried out,” he added.
The ACLU of Idaho called Little’s signing of the law “hugely disappointing” and said that firing squads are “particularly cruel” even though they oppose all forms of the death penalty.
The law will come into force on July 1st.
In recent years, more and more states have encountered difficulties in obtaining the chemicals needed for executions by lethal injection, particularly as some pharmaceutical companies have stopped selling the drugs for this purpose.
Idaho will become the fifth state to currently allow firing squads for executions, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.
Mississippi, Oklahoma, Utah and South Carolina also allow the method as an alternative to lethal injection.
The last person to be executed by firing squad, according to the group, was convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner, who was shot by a firing squad in a Utah prison in 2010.
South Carolina was preparing to carry out its first-ever execution by firing squad last year when a judge ordered a temporary stay to prevent the murder.
Little, who has said he supports the death penalty, added that he has not given up on Idaho’s ability to source the drugs needed for lethal injections.
But the Idaho Capital Sun reported that the state could not go through with the scheduled execution of inmate Gerald Pizzuto Jr. because it could not procure the drug pentobarbital.
According to the Idaho Department of Justice, eight inmates are currently on death row.