Idaho pauses executions into 2026 as prison system preps for firing squad

Idaho's state prison system has suspended all executions and execution-related procedures, including lethal injection, at least until the end of 2025.

This suspension is due to the upcoming transition to firing squad executions as the state's primary method of capital punishment, a change that necessitates significant renovations to the execution chamber at the maximum-security prison.

The new law prioritizing the controversial firing squad method is set to take effect in July 2026.

The Idaho Department of Correction (IDOC) announced that it will begin renovating the state’s execution chamber, located in F-Block at the prison complex south of Boise.

The project is expected to take six to nine months to complete, with F-Block being taken completely offline starting May 23, 2025, for the construction.

While the final cost is not yet available, a previous estimate for the remodel was nearly US$1 million.

Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a D.C.-based nonprofit that tracks capital punishment but takes no position on it, questioned the state's investment. She suggested that Idaho voters should consider whether such a "tremendous investment of time, money and resources" into pursuing more executions is preferable to funding community safety projects and victim family resources.

Despite these concerns, IDOC is confident it will meet the required timelines and budgetary demands for the firing squad project in advance of the July 1, 2026, effective date.

Idaho is one of 27 U.S. states with capital punishment. While five of these states have firing squads as a backup method, Idaho will be the only one to have it as its main method after Governor Brad Little signed the new law.

Lethal injection will become the state's backup. Historically, Idaho executed prisoners by hanging until 1978, when it shifted to lethal injection, a method used for three executions since then.

The state has not executed a prisoner in nearly 13 years, with the last execution occurring in June 2012.

A recent attempt in February 2024 to execute Thomas Creech, the state's longest-serving death row prisoner, failed when the execution team could not find a suitable vein for lethal injection drugs.

Creech, 74, survived the attempt and remains in legal limbo, with a constitutional rights claim challenging a second execution attempt currently under federal judicial review.

Creech is one of nine prisoners on Idaho's death row, a group that recently includes Chad Daybell and potentially Bryan Kohberger, whose capital murder trial is scheduled for this summer.

Adding to the complexities, a federal judge had already barred the state prison system from pursuing executions until upgrades were made to allow witnesses access to the room where lethal injection drugs are prepared and administered.

This ruling followed a lawsuit by three media outlets, including the Statesman, seeking such access.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Debora Grasham cited precedents from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which generally rules in favor of public interest in upholding First Amendment principles.

The Idaho Attorney General’s Office, representing IDOC, appealed this preliminary injunction last week to the 9th Circuit Court.

Source: idahostatesman.com, Kevin Fixler, May 28, 2025

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

— Oscar Wilde

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