Idaho Governor Signs Legislation Authorizing Firing Squad as State’s Primary Execution Method

On March 12, 2025, Idaho Governor Brad Little (pic­tured) signed House Bill 37 into law, mak­ing the fir­ing squad the state’s pri­ma­ry method of exe­cu­tion. In a state­ment to Catholic News Agency, Gov. Little said, ​“I have long made clear my sup­port of cap­i­tal punishment…My sign­ing of [this bill] is con­sis­tent with my sup­port of the Idaho Legislature’s actions in set­ting the poli­cies around meth­ods of exe­cu­tion in the state of Idaho.” The bill, which takes effect on July 1, 2026, passed both cham­bers of the Idaho Legislature by wide mar­gins, with a vote of 28 – 7 in the Senate and 58 – 11 in the House. Just three Republican law­mak­ers joined all 15 of their Democratic col­leagues in vot­ing against the bill. As of November 2024, the Idaho Department of Corrections had not begun work on con­struc­tion of a secured facil­i­ty for exe­cu­tions via fir­ing squad, with recent esti­mates for the pend­ing work run­ning as high as $950,000. 

Five states — Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah — allow for exe­cu­tion by fir­ing squad. Idaho is the only state that autho­rizes fir­ing squad as its pri­ma­ry method of exe­cu­tion. On March 7, 2025, South Carolina exe­cut­ed Brad Sigmon by fir­ing squad, the state’s first-ever exe­cu­tion by this method and the first exe­cu­tion of its kind in the U.S. since 2010. Per South Carolina law, Mr. Sigmon was tasked with elect­ing his method of exe­cu­tion and ulti­mate­ly chose death by fir­ing squad because of unan­swered con­cerns with the state’s lethal injec­tion pro­to­col and its more than 100-year-old electric chair.

In 2023, the Idaho leg­is­la­ture passed a bill autho­riz­ing fir­ing squad exe­cu­tions as an alter­na­tive method if lethal injec­tion was unavail­able. Under the new bill, the fir­ing squad is now the pri­ma­ry method of exe­cu­tion and lethal injec­tion is the alter­na­tive. A March 2022 secre­cy law pre­cludes the state from dis­clos­ing to both the pub­lic and courts infor­ma­tion about the iden­ti­ties, skills, and qual­i­fi­ca­tions of the indi­vid­u­als on an exe­cu­tion team. Those in sup­port of the new leg­is­la­tion argued in com­mit­tee hear­ings that the fir­ing squad is a humane method of exe­cu­tion and would avoid the state’s issues in procur­ing the drugs need­ed for lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions. Representative Bruce Skaug, a co-spon­sor of the leg­is­la­tion, told col­leagues in February that ​“At first when you hear fir­ing squad, if you’re not famil­iar with the his­to­ry, you think ​‘well that sounds bar­bar­ic’ is what I’ve heard from some…It is cer­tain. It is quick. And it brings jus­tice for the vic­tims and their fam­i­lies in a more expe­di­tious man­ner than oth­er types.” But Senator Dan Foreman, a vet­er­an and for­mer police offi­cer, and the only Republican sen­a­tor to vote against the bill, expressed con­cerns. ​“Projecting a piece of met­al at 3,200 feet-per-sec­ond, give or take, through the human body is any­thing but humane,” he told his col­leagues. ​“I can say that because I’ve seen it. I wished I hadn’t seen it.”

Others, includ­ing Senator Brian Lenney, claimed that death by fir­ing squad would be ​“instan­ta­neous” and ​“an act of mer­cy.” Sen. Foreman added that ​“the claims that it’s instan­ta­neous. Well, yes — some­times it is, some­times it is not. And if you’ve ever seen that, I think you would change your mind on how you’re about to vote.” Senate Minority Leader Melissa Wintrow said the bill is ​“a move back­ward.” She added, ​“It’s bar­bar­ic, and it unfor­tu­nate­ly puts the optics of Idaho in a place that I don’t think we care to be.”

Idaho’s last exe­cu­tion was car­ried out in 2012. In February 2024, the state attempt­ed to exe­cute Thomas Creech, the longest serv­ing pris­on­er on the state’s death row, by lethal injec­tion. On February 28, 2024, the exe­cu­tion team tried eight times to estab­lish an IV line to admin­is­ter lethal injec­tion drugs to Mr. Creech, insert­ing nee­dles into his hands, feet, and legs, but his veins col­lapsed each time. After an hour of attempts to estab­lish lines, Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) offi­cials called off Mr. Creech’s exe­cu­tion. His attor­neys warned IDOC offi­cials that his age (then 73) and med­ical con­di­tions, includ­ing Type 2 dia­betes, hyper­ten­sion, and ede­ma, could impact cir­cu­la­tion and vein qual­i­ty. Idaho set anoth­er exe­cu­tion date for November 2024; how­ev­er, a fed­er­al dis­trict court issued a stay of exe­cu­tion to allow for addi­tion­al time to con­sid­er Mr. Creech’s legal claims.

Ahead of Mr. Creech’s sched­uled November 2024 exe­cu­tions, IDOC under­took ren­o­va­tions to the F Block unit at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution to cre­ate an exe­cu­tion prepa­ra­tion room that cost an esti­mat­ed $313,915, accord­ing to offi­cials. The ren­o­va­tions includ­ed imag­ing, design, and engi­neer­ing out­lined in phase one con­struc­tion to the unit but did not include phase two con­struc­tion costs, includ­ing the cre­ation of a secured facil­i­ty for exe­cu­tions via fir­ing squad. In com­mit­tee hear­ings, law­mak­ers said the ren­o­va­tions to build the fir­ing squad cham­ber would like­ly cost more than the $750,000 the leg­is­la­tors ini­tial­ly ear­marked, but Rep. Skaug indi­cat­ed any addi­tion­al funds would come from IDOC’s bud­get. Reporting from the Idaho Capital Sun in October 2024 indi­cates this con­struc­tion would cost an esti­mat­ed $952,589.