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

Comments

Florida Schedules Two Executions for Late April

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis has directed the Florida Department of Corrections to move forward with two executions scheduled for late April 2026, marking a significant ramp-up in the state's use of capital punishment. The scheduled deaths of Chadwick Willacy and James Ernest Hitchcock follow a series of landmark judicial rulings that have kept both men on death row for decades.

Tennessee | Man set to be executed files motion claiming DNA evidence will exonerate him

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Attorneys for death row inmate Tony Carruthers filed a motion in Shelby County Criminal Court seeking immediate DNA testing on evidence they claim will prove his innocence in a 1994 triple murder. Carruthers is scheduled for execution on May 12. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the kidnapping and murders of 24-year-old Marcellos Anderson, 17-year-old Delois Anderson, and 21-year-old Frederick Scarborough. Prosecutors at trial alleged the victims were buried alive in a Memphis cemetery as part of a drug-related robbery.

Singapore executes man for trafficking 1kg of cannabis

SINGAPORE — Singaporean authorities executed Omar bin Yacob Bamadhaj at Changi Prison on Thursday, April 16, 2026, following his 2019 conviction for importing 1,009.1 grams of cannabis. Bamadhaj, 41, though some reports have cited his age as 46, was arrested on July 12, 2018, during a routine search at the Woodlands Checkpoint. Officers discovered the narcotics wrapped in plastic and hidden within his vehicle as he attempted to enter Singapore from Malaysia. Under the Misuse of Drugs Act, the threshold for the mandatory death penalty involving cannabis is 500 grams, a limit this shipment exceeded by more than double.

20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

The following document is a firsthand account of the final moments of Hamida Djandoubi, a convicted murderer executed by guillotine at Marseille’s Baumettes Prison on September 10, 1977. The record—dated September 9—was written by Monique Mabelly, a judge appointed by the state to witness the proceedings. Djandoubi’s execution would ultimately be the last carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. At the time, President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing—who had publicly voiced his "deep aversion to the death penalty" prior to his election—rejected Djandoubi’s appeal for clemency. Choosing to let "justice take its course," the President allowed the execution to proceed, just as he had in two previous cases during his term: Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977. Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was execu...

Iran to execute first woman linked to mass protests after ‘forced confessions’

Bita Hemmati and three others have been sentenced to death for 'collusion' and 'propaganda.' Advocates claim the charges are baseless, citing a secretive process and state-televised interrogations. Iranian authorities are preparing to execute Bita Hemmati, the first woman sentenced to death in connection with the mass protests in Tehran in late December and January, according to the US-based non-profit the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Judge Iman Afshari, of Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, sentenced Hemmati, her husband, Mohammadreza Majidi Asl, and Behrouz Zamaninezhad, and Kourosh Zamaninezhad to death on the charge of “operational action for the hostile government of the United States and hostile groups,” in addition to discretionary imprisonment period of five years on the charge of “assembly and collusion against national security.”

US AG Authorizes Federal Prosecutors to Seek Death Penalty for Three LA Gangsters Charged with Murder

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche has directed federal prosecutors in Los Angeles to seek the death penalty against three members of a transnational street gang charged with murdering a former gang member who was cooperating with law enforcement on a racketeering and methamphetamine trafficking case, officials announced Thursday. In a letter to First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli on Wednesday, Blanche told prosecutors in the Central District of California they are “authorized and directed” to seek the death penalty against Dennis Anaya Urias, 27, Grevil Zelaya Santiago, 26, and Roberto Carlos Aguilar, 31. All are from South Los Angeles.

Texas | Death Sentence Overturned After 48 Years

The Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Thursday that Clarence Jordan’s punishment was unconstitutional A death sentence handed down by a Harris County jury in 1978 was overturned Thursday by the Court of Criminal Appeals. Clarence Jordan, 70, has been on Texas Death Row for almost 50 years, serving out one of the longest death sentences in the nation while suffering from intellectual disabilities and schizophrenia, his attorney told the Houston Press.

Singapore: Halt Imminent Execution of Cannabis Trafficker

(London, April 15, 2026) – The Singaporean government should immediately halt the execution of Omar bin Yacob Bamadhaj, scheduled for April 16, 2026, for trafficking cannabis, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Capital Punishment Justice Project (CPJP), and Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) said today. Singaporean authorities arrested Omar, a Singaporean national, now 41, on July 12, 2018, and a court later convicted him of importing just over one kilogram of cannabis, considered a Class A controlled drug under the 1973 Misuse of Drugs Act . After Singapore’s highest court dismissed his appeal in October 2021, he was sentenced to death in February 2022.

Florida Supreme Court upholds death sentence for man who raped & killed girl, babysitter in 1990

FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Florida Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the convictions and death sentences of Joseph Zieler for the 1990 murders of an 11-year-old girl and her babysitter, clearing the way for his execution after decades of the case remaining unsolved. Zieler, 61, was sentenced to death in 2023 for the slayings of Robin Cornell and Lisa Story. The decision by the state’s highest court marks a pivotal moment in one of Southwest Florida’s most notorious cold cases, which saw no progress until a 2016 DNA match linked Zieler to the crime scene.

Iran | Execution in Ardabil

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 15 April 2026: Mohammad Nourani Gargari, a man on death row for murder, was executed in Ardabil Central Prison. Simultaneously, a woman named Mona Shojaei was saved from execution and released from prison after nine years, having obtained the consent of the victim's next of kin. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Ardabil Central Prison on 1 March 2026. His identity has been established as Mahmoud Nourani Gargari, a 31-year-old father to a young child. The Ardabil native was arrested around three years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog