By Rebecca Boone
Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho — Death by firing squad is now Idaho’s primary method of execution under a bill signed by the governor.
Gov. Brad Little signed House Bill 37 on March 12. It will take effect next year.
Firing-squad executions have been a back-up method in Idaho since 2023, available only if prison officials are unable to obtain lethal injection drugs.
Sen. Doug Ricks, the bill’s sponsor, said the legislation was spurred by Idaho’s botched attempt to execute Thomas Eugene Creech last year, when execution team members were unable to find a suitable vein for an IV line. He suggested shooting someone was more effective and humane than other execution methods. He speculated that the state could use a machine or “electronic triggering methods” that would eliminate the need for human volunteers to pull the triggers.
“One thing about this method, it’s pretty sure,” Ricks said during a hearing on the bill last month. “It’s not going to be something that gets done part way.”
Four other states — Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah — also allow the use of firing squads in certain circumstances, but the method has rarely been used in recent history. In South Carolina, Brad Sigmon became the first person in the U.S. in 15 years to be executed by firing squad.
Idaho Department of Corrections officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The prison recently finished remodeling its lethal injection chamber to add a space where execution team members can use more invasive methods of inserting an IV line deep into the body near the heart if they can’t successfully place an IV line in the condemned person’s arms or legs.
Republican Sen. Daniel Foreman, a retired police officer and former Air Force veteran who served in combat, was the only Republican to debate against the bill. He said he has seen shooting deaths, and that they are “anything but humane.”
“The consequences of a botched firing execution are more graphic, more mentally, psychologically devastating” than other botched execution methods, Foreman said.
Republican Sen. Brian Lenney said lawmakers should remember why capital punishment is imposed.
“If we’re talking about terror, and we’re talking about barbaric, I think we should remember why this man is on death row in the first place,” he said, describing some of the criminal charges against Creech.
Corrections1 News Staff contributed to this report.