The New America: Idaho Governor Signs Legislation Authorizing Firing Squad as State’s Primary Execution Method

The apparatus of repression is silently being built in legislated words and bricks and mortar around the country.

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.

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/idaho-governor-signs-legislation-authorizing-firing-squad-as-states-primary-execution-method