Idaho Steps Closer to Using the Firing Squad for Executions

Idaho will become the fifth state to autho­rize the fir­ing squad as a method of exe­cu­tion and may become the first state to manda­to­ri­ly impose it on a death row pris­on­er since 1976. Idaho’s Governor Brad Little signed HB 186 into law on March 24, 2023, and it goes into effect on July 1. The law gives the direc­tor of the Idaho Department of Correction up to five days after a death war­rant is issued to deter­mine if lethal injec­tion is avail­able. If it is declared unavail­able, the exe­cu­tion will be per­formed by fir­ing squad. The state will need to spend $750,000 on its facil­i­ties to enable exe­cu­tions by firing squad. 

The state has twice stayed recent exe­cu­tion dates for Gerald Pizzuto, Jr. because it could not obtain lethal injec­tion drugs. Idaho House Assistant Minority Leader Lauren Necochea (D‑Boise), who opposed the bill, warned that it will lead to legal chal­lenges to the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the fir­ing squad. ​“This would open Idaho up to lengthy, expen­sive legal chal­lenges relat­ed to the Eighth Amendment, which pro­hibits cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment,” Necochea said. 

The South Carolina Supreme Court is con­sid­er­ing a low­er court rul­ing that the fir­ing squad is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al under state law. Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Utah all autho­rize the fir­ing squad as a back­up method of exe­cu­tion. In Mississippi and Oklahoma, it is autho­rized if nitro­gen hypox­ia, lethal injec­tion, and elec­tro­cu­tion are held uncon­sti­tu­tion­al or are ​“oth­er­wise unavail­able.” In Utah, it is autho­rized if lethal injec­tion is unavail­able, but the state has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion since 2010, when Ronnie Lee Gardner chose the fir­ing squad for his exe­cu­tion. The two oth­er uses of the fir­ing squad since 1976 were also in Utah, with both pris­on­ers hav­ing a choice of methods.