Idaho is poised to make a stark break with the rest of the country on executions. Beginning Wednesday, the state will treat the firing squad—not lethal injection—as its main way of putting inmates to death, becoming the only state to do so, reports IdahoNews.com. The state dropped more than $1 million in retrofitting its death chamber, notes the Guardian, which includes $24,000 worth of AR-style .308-caliber rifles. Lawmakers moved to change course after a botched February 2024 attempt to execute longtime death row inmate Thomas Creech, when staff tried and failed eight times to insert an IV line. Since the US Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1977, Idaho has executed three people, all by injection.
The switch, authorized under House Bill 803, comes as public support for the death penalty nationally has dropped to a 50-year low, even as Idaho officials say backing remains strong in the state. Supporters, such as bill co-sponsor Rep. Bruce Skaug, argue firing squads are more reliable and "humane" because death is swift. Critics, including the Death Penalty Information Center's Robin Maher, point to recent firing squad executions in South Carolina that allegedly "went badly" as evidence that the method is far from foolproof.
Per the Guardian, the "archaic and bloody" practice goes thusly: A prisoner is strapped to a chair and hooded, with a target placed over the heart's left ventricle. Certified peace officers form a three-person firing squad. "When a rifle's bullets eviscerate the left ventricle of the heart, blood stops flowing and the brain shuts down within seconds. Death is instantaneous." Eight inmates are currently on Idaho's death row.
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