Idaho Moves Closer to Firing Squad Executions
If the stipulations of a 2025 law proceed according to plan, Idaho will switch to using firing squads as its primary method of performing executions by July 1 of this year. Governor Brad Little (R) signed HB 37 into law in March 2025, cementing executions by firing squad as a default over other methods such as lethal injection. While Idaho first legalized firing squads in 2023, when Governor Little signed HB 186, the method was only authorized if the drugs for lethal injection were unavailable; HB 37 sidelined lethal injection as the alternative. [See: PLN, Aug. 2023, p.51.]
Currently, only four other states—Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah—allow for execution by firing squad. So far, Idaho is the sole state to pass a law to prioritize firing squads over other methods. On March 7, 2025, South Carolina used a firing squad to execute prisoner Brad Sigmon, 67, which was the first execution of its kind in the United States since 2010. Sigmon was given the “choice” of how he would be executed and went with the firing squad instead of lethal injection or the state’s 100-year-old electric chair. [See: PLN, May 2025, p.15.]
In recent years, lethal injection drugs have gotten harder for states to procure as pharmaceutical companies refuse to allow their products to be used in executions. Idaho, in particular, has had difficulty in buying the drugs, with its last two purchases conducted under questionable circumstances. As PLN reported, six vials of pentobarbital, a sedative commonly used to euthanize pets, were bought from the backseat of a vehicle outside of a maximum-security prison in Boise. [See: PLN, Jun. 2025, p.56.]
The last prisoner executed in Idaho was in 2012; although the execution of Thomas Creech was planned in 2024, it was not carried out because the executioners could not find a suitable vein to administer the lethal injection drugs. Both the scarcity of such drugs and Creech’s botched execution led to the push for firing squads in the state.
To comply with HB 37, Idaho will spend more than $900,000 in renovating its execution chamber at Idaho State Correctional Institution to accommodate a firing squad. Anti-death penalty advocates in Idaho have identified three companies involved with the renovation: engineering firm Cator Ruma, Oakland Construction, and Elevatus Architecture. The nonprofit Worth Rises, in November 2025, published excerpts of an email sent by Tony Vie, an architect at Elevatus. In a casual tone, Vie wrote: “They would like a floor drain in the execution room. It’s OK if they have to mop/squeegee liquids to the drain. Sloping the floor will not be cost effective.”
Sources: Idaho Statesman, Death Penalty Information Center
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