Entries tagged with “Firing Squad”
Executions
Botched Executions
,Jun 22, 2026
States Continue to Push for Execution Secrecy Amid Legal Challenges
For the past 15 years, as state after state has passed execution secrecy laws, the public has faced more questions than answers about how elected officials use their taxpayer dollars for the most serious punishment. Every active death penalty state now has a law shielding key information about executions, such as the source of lethal injection drugs, the identities of execution team members, and whether those individuals have adequate training. In 2026, as botched executions continue to make…
Executions
Methods of Execution
,Feb 04, 2026
Bipartisan Support Defeats Indiana House Bill to Add Firing Squad as Execution Method
A bipartisan group of 19 Republicans and 28 Democrats narrowly defeated a measure to add the firing squad as an execution method in an Indiana House floor vote on January 28, 2026. HB 1119 received 48 in favor and 47 against, falling three votes short of passage, with two legislators not voting and three absent. Although the measure could have been brought for a second vote before February 2, it was not. A similar Senate bill (SB 11) to add the firing squad stalled in committee and is also…
Methods of Execution
,Dec 09, 2025
Roundup of 2025 Legislation to Modify Execution Protocols
On December 15, 2025, the Death Penalty Information Center will release its annual Year End Report detailing nationwide death penalty trends, including executions, new death sentences, legislation, public opinion, and the legal challenges in the Supreme Court. This article highlights the legislation introduced this year to modify execution protocols. This year, legislators in more than half of states that retain the death penalty proposed changes to their execution protocols. Five states…
Jun 12, 2025
Counsel for Ralph Menzies Appeal Competency Ruling as State Moves to Set Execution Date
On June 6, 2025, District Judge Matthew Bates issued a ruling finding Utah death-sentenced prisoner Ralph Menzies mentally competent to be executed despite concerns presented by Mr. Menzies’ attorneys about his vascular dementia. In his ruling, Judge Bates agreed that Mr. Menzies suffers from vascular dementia but said Mr. Menzies had failed to show “by a preponderance of the evidence that his mental condition prevents him from reaching a rational understanding of the punishment or the State’s…
Botched Executions
,May 13, 2025
Lawyers Raise Concern as Autopsy Finds South Carolina’s Second Firing Squad Execution May Have Been Botched
On May 8, 2025, Mikal Deen Mahdi’s lawyers submitted to the South Carolina Supreme Court the state pathology report in his case which suggests that Mr. Mahdi’s execution last month by firing squad did not go as planned. Pathologists reported that not only did Mr. Mahdi have two wounds as opposed to the anticipated three wounds from three South Carolina Corrections Department (SCDC) shooters, but also that they missed the intended target over his heart, prolonging his death. Mr. Mahdi was the…
Feb 14, 2024
Utah Court Rules Prisoner Suffering from Dementia Requires a Competency Assessment Following the State’s Request for Execution
On February 13, 2024, the 3rd District Court of Salt Lake City, Utah ruled that evidence presented by Ralph Menzies’ attorneys of his dementia and cognitive decline requires a formal assessment of his competency to face execution by firing squad. With its decision, the court also vacated a hearing scheduled for February 23, at which the state of Utah intended to request an execution warrant for Mr. Menzies. As explained in his request for a competency hearing, Mr. Menzies has been diagnosed…
Jan 29, 2024
Lawyers for 65-Year-Old Prisoner with Vascular Dementia Say He is Incompetent to be Executed Days After Utah Requests Execution Date and Use of Firing Squad
On January 23, 2024, attorneys for Utah death-sentenced prisoner Ralph Menzies, who has been diagnosed with a major neurocognitive disorder known as vascular dementia, filed a petition in state court alleging he is incompetent to be executed. Mr. Menzies, who uses a walker to navigate the prisons, has been on Utah’s death row for nearly 36 years. On January 17, 2024, Utah’s attorney general’s office filed a motion with courts to set an execution date for him and indicated it will use the firing…
Issues
Jul 06, 2023
Execution Costs in Idaho Take Center Stage with New Firing Squad Law
A bill that Idaho Governor Brad Little signed into law in March 2023, authorizing the use of the firing squad as a method of execution, went into effect on July 1, 2023. This law grants the director of Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) the authority to determine if lethal injection is available and, if deemed unavailable, to carry out the execution by firing squad. Included in the new law is an estimated cost of $750,000 to renovate a cell block at Idaho Maximum Security Institution…
Research
Methods of Execution
,Mar 28, 2023
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…
Executions
Methods of Execution
,Feb 09, 2023
South Carolina Supreme Court Blocks Efforts to Conceal Lethal Injection Information
On January 26, South Carolina’s Supreme Court ordered the state to turn over information about its attempts to obtain lethal injection drugs, as part of a suit challenging aspects of the state’s methods of execution. South Carolina has not carried out an execution since 2011, stating that it was too difficult to obtain lethal injection drugs. The Court’s order required the state to disclose what efforts it has made to acquire them. A lower court had ruled that the alternate methods of…
Executions
Executions Overview
,Methods of Execution
,Oct 11, 2022
South Carolina Supreme Court to Hear Argument One Month Sooner on Constitutionality of Electric Chair and Firing Squad
The South Carolina Supreme Court will hear argument one month sooner on the state’s appeal of a trial court ruling that declared two of its statutorily methods of execution — death by electric chair and firing squad — unconstitutional. The argument will now be held on December 13, 2022 in the Supreme Court Courtroom in Columbia. Argument initially had been set for January 12, 2023 at Coastal Carolina University. The court did not provide any explanation for the scheduling change. The appeal…
Executions
Executions Overview
,Methods of Execution
,Sep 09, 2022
South Carolina Trial Court Rules in Favor of Death-Row Prisoners Challenging Execution Methods
A South Carolina trial court has issued an injunction preventing the state from carrying out executions using a firing squad or the electric chair, ruling that those methods violate the state’s constitutional prohibition against “cruel, unusual, and corporal punishments.” In a 38-page opinion issued September 6, 2022, Richland County Court of Common Pleas Judge Jocelyn Newman (pictured) opinion offered a sweeping condemnation of the state’s 2021 method-of-execution statute, which made the…
Executions
Executions Overview
,Methods of Execution
,Aug 18, 2022
South Carolina Court Set to Rule on Prisoners’ Challenge to Electric Chair and Firing Squad Executions After Completion of Methods of Execution Trial
A decision on the constitutionality of South Carolina’s newly adopted execution methods now rests in the hands a trial court judge after lawyers for death-row prisoners and the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) presented four days of conflicting expert testimony about the amount of pain suffered during firing squad and electric chair executions. The trial before Circuit Court Judge Jocelyn Newman (pictured) was conducted in response to a lawsuit filed on March 21, 2022 by…
Executions
Methods of Execution
,Apr 26, 2022
Executions Halted in South Carolina Amid Challenges to Constitutionality of Firing Squad and Electric Chair
The South Carolina Supreme Court has halted two scheduled executions, including one that would have been the state’s first execution by firing squad, amid ongoing legal challenges by state death-row prisoners to the state’s execution methods. In separate orders, the state’s high court issued stays of execution for Richard Moore, who was scheduled to be put to death by firing squad on April 29, 2022, and to Brad Sigmon, who faced a May 13, 2022 execution date. It was the third stay of execution…
Executions
Methods of Execution
,Apr 06, 2022
South Carolina Death-Row Prisoners File Suit to Block Firing-Squad Executions Until Courts Address Challenges to Execution Methods
Lawyers for three men on South Carolina’s death row have asked the state supreme court to defer setting execution dates until the courts resolve pending legal challenges to the state’s controversial execution methods. The request was filed in the South Carolina Supreme Court on March 21, 2022 on behalf of Brad Keith Sigmon, Freddie Eugene Owens, and Gary Dubose Terry, just days after South Carolina Department of Corrections officials announced they were prepared to perform executions by firing…
Executions
Methods of Execution
,Dec 08, 2021
South Carolina Execution Practices are Shrouded in Secrecy
As South Carolina prepares procedures for carrying out executions via firing squad, an investigation by Columbia’s daily newspaper, The State, reports that important information about the execution process and the sources of materials to be used in executions is being hidden from the public. The state legislature passed a bill in May 2021 making the firing squad and electric chair the two means of execution in the state. However, the state has denied journalists’ requests for information about…
Executions
Methods of Execution
,Jun 17, 2021
South Carolina Supreme Court Halts Executions of Brad Sigmon and Freddie Owens
The South Carolina Supreme Court has vacated death warrants for two death-row prisoners scheduled to be executed this month, staying their executions until the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDOC) complies with a newly enacted state law requiring that it offer condemned prisoners the option of being executed by firing squad. In separate orders issued on June 16, 2021 in the cases of Brad Sigmon, who faced a June 18 execution, and Freddie Owens, who was scheduled to be executed June…
Issues
Methods of Execution
,May 06, 2021
South Carolina Legislature Authorizes Use of Electric Chair and Firing Squad as State Reaches 10 Years Without an Execution
One day shy of the tenth anniversary of the state’s last execution, the South Carolina legislature, frustrated by the state’s inability to obtain execution drugs, approved a bill that would authorize putting prisoners to death in the electric chair or by firing squad. On May 5, 2021, the South Carolina House of Representatives voted 66 – 43 to approve Senate Bill 200, bringing the bill closer to final passage. The State Senate passed an earlier version of the bill on March 2 by a vote of 32 – 11.