BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — A bill that would add the firing squad as a secondary means of execution when lethal injection is not available was introduced in committee Wednesday morning.
Rep. Bruce Skaug (R-Nampa) said the purpose of the bill is to make sure the state can carry out timely and lawfully ordered executions.
In recent years, the state has had challenges accessing the drugs needed to execute someone by lethal injection.
"Our criminal system should work and our penalties should be exacted," Skaug told the House Ways and Means committee.
Late last year, the Idaho Department of Corrections suspended preparations for the execution of Gerald Pizzuto on Dec. 15, 2022, after not being able to secure the necessary chemicals on schedule.
In 1982, the legislature gave prison officials the option of firing squad, but it was never used. The option was removed in 2009, leaving lethal injection as the only means to execute a person in Idaho.
The bill’s fiscal note says there would be a one-time cost for the Department of Correction to get its facility prepared to handle a firing squad.
When asked about the speed and painlessness of death by firing squad, Skaug said, "I am not the expert on the matter. what I have read is that there can be about 10 seconds of extreme pain before death at times, but I find it to be, in my personal view more humane than lethal injection. lethal injection gets botched about six to eight percent of the time and is a mess."
The three Democrats on the committee voted against introducing the bill.
"I's sort of surprising to see it introduced as something that would be sanctioned by the government in this century," Rep. Ilana Rubel (D-Boise) said. "I understand there have been some glitches in obtaining the necessary drugs for lethal injection, but it seems to me the better path is to resolve figure out how to get reliable access to the lethal injection drugs rather than be resorting to this extremely violent and extremely painful method of execution."
Three people in the last 50 years have been killed by firing squad in the U.S. The latest was in Utah in 2010, in which the man chose to be executed in that manner.Under this bill, the prisoner wouldn't get a say.
Skaug's bill now heads to the House Judiciary committee -- the committee he chairs -- where it should get a hearing soon.
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