Idaho Department of Correction Renovating to Accommodate Firing Squad Executions

The Idaho Department of Correction is renovating the execution chamber at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution near Kuna, according to building permits from the Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses.

The change comes after the failed execution attempt of 74-year-old Thomas Creech on Feb. 28, in which the medical team could not establish an IV line to carry out his execution by lethal injection. The department called off his execution.

On Wednesday, IDOC spokesperson Sanda Kuzeta-Cerimagic verified the work is happening in an area of the facility known as the F block, where IDOC carries out executions.

“In order to comply with (Idaho law), which requires us to have the ability to carry out an execution by firing squad, we have implemented a phased approach to retrofitting the F Block, our current execution chamber,” Kuzeta-Cerimagic wrote in an email to Idaho Reports.

“Phase one of the F Block retrofit included making modifications to the existing configurations and is nearing completion. We are currently in phase two of the retrofit, evaluating design and layout options for accommodating a firing squad.”

The building permits do not outline the renovation details, and Kuzeta-Cerimagic said she could not elaborate.

Idaho Reports filed a record request on Tuesday for copies of the renovation plans but did not receive an immediate response.

Idaho Department of Correction working on central-line facility, documents indicate

But other records hint at possible plans. In at least two pieces of recent litigation, attorneys for those on death row have brought up the potential of IDOC changing its policy to use a central vein to kill a person.

A central vein is a major vein in the body, usually in the chest, neck or groin. Access to a central vein requires the insertion of a catheter. A peripheral vein is closer to the skin’s surface, such as in the arm or hand, commonly used in things like blood draw or establishing an IV line on a patient. IDOC’s current execution procedure, last modified in 2021, did not allow the medical team to use a central vein or establish a catheter in the central vein on Creech during the last execution attempt.

In a Sept. 13 filing in pending federal lawsuit filed by Gerald Pizzuto Jr., another man on Idaho’s death row, Pizzuto asked IDOC for its newest execution procedures. On April 17, the complaint states Pizzuto, 68, was informed that IDOC was amending the execution procedure. Pizzuto’s lawsuit claims that as late as Sept. 3, IDOC indicated it was working on construction of the central-line facility, which was not yet complete “because certain equipment had not yet been delivered.”

Documents dated June 10 say when questioned, Idaho Department of Correction director Josh “Tewalt admits IDOC will use an appropriately licensed and credentialed volunteer to insert a central line. Defendant Tewalt further admits insertion of a central line is within that person’s scope of practice. So far, the volunteer who will place the central line has not been given a designation.”

“Our execution policy remains under review, and it will be made available to the public at a later time,” wrote Kuzeta-Cerimagic.

The statements made in litigation do not mean IDOC has formally changed its policy. IDOC policy does not require the department to host public meetings regarding a change in execution procedure. Instead, the decision is left to Tewalt.

During a House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee meeting on Feb. 29, while being questioned about Creech’s failed execution, legislators asked Tewalt about the use of a central vein.

“It’s a very different legal threshold that we have to establish where we are not practicing medicine with the intent to save a life,” Tewalt told legislators. “In fact, it’s the exact opposite.”

Alabama corrections used a central intravenous line in the past during executions by lethal injections where a peripheral line could not be established.

The state of Idaho does allow the use of the firing squad as an execution method, but does not yet have a complete facility constructed to carry out a death by firing squad.

There are no current death warrants for any of Idaho’s death row residents.

— This story was first published by Idaho Reports.

Source: bigcountrynewsconnection.com, Ruth Brown, September 24, 2024

_____________________________________________________________________

Twitter/X | Facebook | Telegram | Contact Us

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

Florida executes Michael Tanzi

Florida on Tuesday executed a death row inmate described by one local detective as a "fledgling serial killer" for the murder of a beloved Miami Herald employee. Florida executed Michael Tanzi on Tuesday, 25 years after the murder of beloved Miami Herald employee Janet Acosta, who was attacked in broad daylight on her lunch break in 2000. Michael Tanzi, 48, was executed by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Raiford and pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. ET.

South Carolina | Man who ambushed off-duty cop to face firing squad in second execution of its kind

Mikal Mahdi, 48, who was found guilty of killing an off-duty police officer and a convenience store worker, is the second inmate scheduled to executed by South Carolina's new firing squad A murderer who ambushed and shot an off duty police officer eight times before burning his body in a killing spree is set to become the second person to die by firing squad. South Carolina's highest court has rejected the last major appeal from Mikal Mahdi, 41, who is to be put to death with three bullets to the heart at 6pm on April 11 at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. Mahdi's lawyers said his original lawyers put on a shallow case trying to spare his life that didn't call on relatives, teachers or people who knew him and ignored the impact of weeks spent in solitary confinement in prison as a teen.

Afghanistan | Four men publicly executed by Taliban with relatives of victims shooting them 'six or seven times' at sport stadium

Four men have been publicly executed by the Taliban, with relatives of their victims shooting them several times in front of spectators at a sport stadium. Two men were shot around six to seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the centre of Afghanistan's Badghis province, witnesses told an AFP journalist in the city. The men had been 'sentenced to retaliatory punishment' for shooting other men, after their cases were 'examined very precisely and repeatedly', the statement said. 'The families of the victims were offered amnesty and peace but they refused.'

South Carolina executes Mikal Mahdi

Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers A man facing the death penalty for committing two murders was executed by firing squad on Friday, the second such execution in the US state of South Carolina this year. Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers, an off-duty police officer, and the murder of a convenience store employee three days earlier. According to a statement from the prison, "the execution was performed by a three-person firing squad at 6:01 pm (2201 GMT)," with Mahdi pronounced dead four minutes later.

Lethal Injection, Electric Chair, or Firing Squad? An Inhumane Decision for Death Row Prisoners

South Carolina resumed executions with the firing squad killing of Brad Sigmon last month. Mikal Madhi’s execution date is days away. The curtain shrieked as it was yanked open to reveal a 67-year-old man tied to a chair. His arms were pulled uncomfortably behind his back. The red bull’s-eye target on his chest rose and fell as he desperately attempted to still his breathing. The man, Brad Sigmon, smiled at his attorney, Bo King, seated in the front row before guards placed a black bag over his head. King said Sigmon appeared to be trying his best to put on a brave face for those who had come to bear witness.

USA | Why the firing squad may be making a comeback

South Carolina plans to execute Mikal Mahdi on Friday for the murder of a police officer, draping a hood over his head and firing three bullets into his heart. The choice to die by firing squad – rather than lethal injection or the electric chair – was Mahdi’s own, his attorney said last month: “Faced with barbaric and inhumane choices, Mikal Mahdi has chosen the lesser of three evils.” If it proceeds, Mahdi’s execution would be the latest in a recent string of events that have put the spotlight on the firing squad as a handful of US death penalty states explore alternatives to lethal injection, by far the nation’s dominant execution method.

I spent 16 years in solitary in South Carolina. This is what it did to me. | Opinion

South Carolinian Randy Poindexter writes about the effects 16 years of solitary confinement had on him ahead of South Carolina’s planned execution of Mikal Mahdi , who spent months in solitary as a young man. For 16 years, I lived in a concrete cell. Twenty-three hours a day, every day, for more than 3,000 days, South Carolina kept me in solitary confinement. I was a young man before I was sent to solitary — angry, untreated and unwell. I made mistakes. But I wasn’t sentenced to madness. That’s what solitary did to me. My mental health worsened with each passing day. At first, paranoia and depression set in. Then, hallucinations and self-mutilation. I talked to people who weren’t there. I cut myself to feel something besides despair. I could do nothing as four of my friends and fellow prisoners took their own lives rather than endure another day of torturous isolation.

Louisiana | Lawyers of Jessie Hoffman speak about their final moments before execution

As Louisiana prepared its first execution in 15 years, a team of lawyers from Loyola Law were working to save Jessie Hoffman’s life. “I was a young lawyer three years out of law school, and Jessie was almost finished with his appeals at that time, and my boss told me we needed to file something for Jessie because he’s in danger of being executed,” Kappel said. Kappel and her boss came up with a civil lawsuit to file that said since they wouldn’t give him a protocol for his execution, he was being deprived of due process, and the lawsuit was in the legal process for the next 10 years.

Arizona | The cruelty of isolation: There’s nothing ‘humane’ about how we treat the condemned

On March 19, I served as a witness to the execution of a man named Aaron Gunches, Arizona’s first since 2022. During his time on death row, he begged for death and was ultimately granted what is likely more appropriately described as an emotionless state-assisted suicide. This experience has profoundly impacted me, leading to deep reflection on the nature of death, humanity, and the role we play in our final moments. When someone is in the end stages of life, we talk about hospice care, comfort, care, easing suffering and humane death. We strive for a “good death” — a peaceful transition. I’ve seen good ones, and I’ve seen bad, unplanned ones.

'No Warning': The Death Penalty In Japan

Stakes for wrongful convictions are high in Japan, where the death penalty has broad public support despite criticism over how it is carried out. Tokyo: Capital punishment in Japan is under scrutiny again after the world's longest-serving death row prisoner, Iwao Hakamada, was awarded $1.4 million in compensation this week following his acquittal last year in a retrial. Stakes for wrongful convictions are high in Japan, where the death penalty has broad public support despite international criticism over how it is carried out.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog