Idaho moved another step closer Thursday to becoming the only U.S. state with a firing squad as its lead method for carrying out the death penalty.
Along a nearly party-line vote, the Republican-controlled Idaho House overwhelmingly passed House Bill 37, by a 58-11 tally. Two GOP members joined the House’s nine Democrats in opposition following limited debate. The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration.
Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, is the bill’s lead sponsor. He said he brought the legislation forward because he believes shooting a prisoner to death is a “more humane way” to end their life than the state’s current execution method by lethal injection. The firing squad also would result in less litigation, he said.
“This is a rule of law issue. It’s already been decided that these inmates should be put to death for their heinous crimes — and they are awful crimes,” Skaug, a retired personal injury attorney, said during the bill’s presentation Thursday. “This is not in any way lessening due process for those who are convicted and are facing the death penalty. Due process still takes place, but there will be a lot less appeals issues.”
The Federal Defender Services of Idaho, the legal nonprofit that represents most of the nine members on Idaho’s death row, did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment from the Idaho Statesman.
The bill also comes a year after Idaho failed to execute a prisoner for the first time in state history. Prison officials called off the lethal injection when the state’s execution team tried for nearly an hour, but could not find a suitable vein for an IV in the 73-year-old prisoner’s body.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho voiced deep concern about Skaug’s bill.
“The ACLU opposes the death penalty in any form as we believe state-sanctioned killing violates a person’s Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment,” ACLU of Idaho spokesperson Rebecca De León said in a statement to the Statesman. “We argue that all methods of execution are cruel and unusual, as each method has a history of being botched at some point, creating a traumatic and horrific situation for all involved.”
Of the 27 U.S. states that still have capital punishment, five — including Idaho — have a firing squad on their books as a backup execution method. The others are South Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah and Mississippi. Utah was last to carry out the death penalty with the controversial method, in 2010.
Skaug also carried the bill that became law in 2023 to bring back the firing squad as Idaho’s reserve execution method. The state previously had a firing squad written into its laws, but removed it in 2009. A firing squad has never before been used in Idaho to execute a prisoner.
Despite the prior law passing almost two years ago, the Idaho Department of Correction has yet to finalize a protocol for possible firing squad executions, agency spokesperson Sanda Kuzeta-Cerimagic said in an email to the Statesman. Skaug told House members Thursday that he spoke privately with IDOC Director Josh Tewalt about what those protocols will look like.
“He plans to do a mechanized version of the firing squad, so there won’t be a lineup of people holding rifles,” Skaug said Tewalt told him. “It’ll be button-activated for the rifles.”
IDOC does not have any specifics to share at this time, Kuzeta-Cerimagic said. But, the agency is “considering the use of a remote-operated weapons system alongside traditional firing squad methods,” she said.
Execution upgrades priced at more than $1 million
If the firing squad bill becomes law, it wouldn’t take effect until July 2026. Lethal injections would remain the state’s primary execution method until then, which would provide IDOC ample time to prepare for a firing squad. Construction at the maximum security prison south of Boise would take about six months, Skaug said on the House floor.
That 2023 law sponsored by Skaug provided $750,000 to IDOC to renovate its existing execution chamber to accommodate a firing squad. But a recent estimate placed that cost at more than $950,000. IDOC also tapped the same fund last fall for about $314,000 to retrofit the execution chamber with a “preparation room,” to be used in future lethal injection or firing squad executions.
The total costs of execution chamber upgrades are now expected to soar past $1 million. Regardless, the state prison system does not plan to request additional appropriations from the Legislature for construction, Kuzeta-Cerimagic said.
In 2022, South Carolina retrofitted its execution chamber to provide for a firing squad at a cost of about $54,000, according to The Associated Press.
Rep. John Gannon, D-Boise, an attorney, voted against the bill Thursday. During debate on the House floor, he noted that other states with capital punishment have continued to put prisoners to death by lethal injection, and also questioned how spending that amount of money to rebuild the execution chamber in fiscally conservative Idaho was justifiable to taxpayers.
“The expense to this is getting to be considerable,” Gannon said. “Now, we’re learning that this is going to cost well over $1 million. … You can build a gorgeous, gorgeous mansion for $1 million, and I don’t know why a firing squad facility is costing so much.”
On Wednesday, a Republican state senator introduced a bill that would allow women who seek an abortion to be charged with murder, among other crimes. Idaho already has some of the strictest abortion laws in the nation, and the bill included no exceptions for rape or incest.
Senate GOP leadership said the abortion bill would not receive a public hearing or be advanced for a full vote. With some rare exceptions, a person must be convicted of first-degree murder in Idaho to be eligible for the death penalty.
House Minority Leader Steve Berch, D-Boise, took the opportunity Thursday during floor debate on the firing squad bill to draw attention to the potential nexus.
“The prospect for potentially executing a woman who has an abortion by firing squad is not my definition of humane,” Berch told fellow House members.
