State senate passes bill as its sponsor suggests shooting someone is more effective and humane than other methods<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Firing squads could become Idaho<\/a>\u2019s primary execution<\/a> method under a bill headed to the governor\u2019s desk this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Idaho<\/a> senate passed the bill on Wednesday, and if signed by governor Brad Little, it will take effect next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Currently, the firing squad serves as Idaho\u2019s backup execution method if state corrections officials are unable to obtain the necessary drugs for lethal injection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Representative Doug Ricks, the bill\u2019s sponsor, said the legislation was prompted by Idaho\u2019s failed attempt to execute Thomas Eugene Creech last year when the execution team was unable to find a suitable vein for an IV line. Ricks said that shooting was a more effective and humane method, and he suggested that the state could use a machine or \u201celectronic triggering methods\u201d to eliminate the need for human volunteers to pull the triggers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne thing about this method, it\u2019s pretty sure,\u201d Ricks said during a hearing on the bill last month. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to be something that gets done partway.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n If passed into law, the bill would take effect on 1 July 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Four other states \u2013 Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah \u2013 allow firing squads in certain circumstances, though the method has been rarely used in recent years. South Carolina is set to carry out the first US execution by firing squad in 15 years<\/a> with the scheduled execution of Brad Sigmon on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Federal Defender Services of Idaho, which represents many of the people on the Idaho\u2019s death row, declined to comment on the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Idaho department of correction officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The prison recently remodeled its lethal injection chamber to include a space where execution teams can use more invasive methods to insert an IV line near the heart if they cannot successfully place one in the arms or legs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Republican senator 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 had seen shooting deaths, and that they are \u201canything but humane\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe consequences of a botched firing execution are more graphic, more mentally, psychologically devastating\u201d than other botched execution methods, Foreman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Republican senator Brian Lenney said lawmakers should remember why capital punishment is imposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf we\u2019re talking about terror, and we\u2019re talking about barbaric, I think we should remember why this man is on death row in the first place,\u201d he said, describing some of the criminal charges against Creech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the US, 144 prisoner executions have been carried out by firing squads, according to a 2016 law review article<\/a>. Since the death penalty became reinstated in the 1970s, Utah is the only state to have executed people by firing squad<\/a>, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n