08 March 2025 :
March 5, 2025 - Idaho. Senate passes firing squad bill (HB 37)
Firing squad could become Idaho’s main execution method under a bill awaiting governor’s approval
The Idaho Senate passed the bill on Wednesday, and it will take effect next year if it is signed by Gov. Brad Little.
Firing-squad executions have been a back-up method in Idaho since 2023, available only if prison officials are unable to obtain lethal injection drugs.
Rep. Doug Ricks, the bill’s sponsor, said the legislation was spurred by Idaho’s botched attempt to execute Thomas Eugene Creech last year, when execution team members were unable to find a suitable vein for an IV line. He suggested shooting someone was more effective and humane than other execution methods. He speculated that the state could use a machine or “electronic triggering methods” that would eliminate the need for human volunteers to pull the triggers.
The Federal Defender Services of Idaho, which represents many of the people on the Idaho’s death row, declined to comment on the bill.
Idaho Department of Correction officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The prison recently finished remodeling its lethal injection chamber to add a space where execution team members can use more invasive methods of inserting an IV line deep into the body near the heart if they can’t successfully place an IV line in the condemned person’s arms or legs.
Republican Sen. Daniel Foreman, a retired police officer and former Air Force veteran who served in combat, was the only Republican to debate against the bill on Wednesday. He said he has seen shooting deaths, and that they are “anything but humane.”
