Idaho Legislature Moves to Hide Execution Protocol from Judicial Scrutiny
by Douglas Ankney
Seeking to make the killing of incarcerated persons easier, the 2026 Regular Session of the Idaho Legislature has passed House Bill No. 803 (“HB 803”) that, inter alia, exempts from judicial review the procedures used in executions.
Idaho, like most of the remaining states that kill people and call it “justice,” has had difficulty in obtaining drugs for use in executing persons sentenced to death. This is due, in part, to the drug manufacturers’ objections to their products being used, not for healing, but for killing of people.
Rather than abandon the practice of deliberate, willful and premeditated killings of unarmed incarcerated persons who pose no imminent threat, the Idaho Legislature instead chose to change the default killing method to one that makes those drugs no longer needed and to hide those changes from the public and from judicial review.
First, Idaho Code § 19-2716(1)(a) has been amended to replace lethal injection with “firing squad” as the default method to kill people sentenced to death in Idaho. [See: PLN, Jul. 2026, p.30.] And Idaho Code § 19-2716(2) provides that: “Not later than five (5) days after the issuance of a death warrant, the director of the Idaho department of correction must determine, and certify by affidavit to the court that issued the death warrant, whether execution by firing squad … is available.”
Further, Idaho Code § 19-2716(6) provides that “[t]he director shall determine the procedures to be used in any execution. Such procedures shall not be subject to the provisions of Chapter 52, title 67, Idaho Code.”
Readers of PLN are aware that the Director of the Idaho Department of Corrections (DOC) is Bree Derrick, who earlier this year dismissed the unrebutted evidence of DOC staff sexually assaulting prisoners with near impunity at the state’s prisons for women. [See: PLN, May 2026, p.22.]
It is beyond disturbing that Derrick, whose ability to oversee the provision of safety and security for the incarcerated persons and the staff inside DOC facilities is questionable at best, is charged with determining the procedures in the killing of another human being. But the horror of that proposition is magnified by the fact that, under HB 803, those procedures will no longer be subject to public scrutiny or judicial review. See: Title 67, Chapter 52 of the Idaho Code is the state’s Administrative Procedures Act (APA).
The three-member Board of Correction is already exempt from compliance with the APA and the required oversight contained therein. HB 803 extends the exemption to the director of the DOC. Not satisfied with hiding the procedures for killing another human being from the courts and the public, the Idaho Legislature also amended the statute to hide the identities of anyone involved with the killing.
As amended by HB 803, Idaho Code § 19-2716A(4)(a) now provides that for the purposes of carrying out executions “the identities of any of the following persons or entities involved in the planning, training, or performance of an execution shall be confidential, shall not be subject to disclosure, and shall not be admissible as evidence or discoverable in any proceeding before any court, tribunal, board, agency, or person: ‘(a) The on-site emergency medical personnel, any member of the escort team, medical team, or firing squad, and any person or entity that provides technical assistance during the execution process …’”
Additional source: Idaho Statesman
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