Idaho eyes restart of death row executions as firing squad draws near

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho’s prison system has nearly completed execution chamber upgrades to carry out the death penalty by firing squad as the state’s lead method and will have a team of riflemen ready to go by the time a state law takes effect this summer.

As part of the transition, the Idaho Department of Correction hopes to limit participation by its officers as the shooting of condemned people in prison to death is prioritized over lethal injection. Toward that effort, prisoner leadership sought to implement a push-button technology to avoid needing IDOC workers to pull the triggers.

But — at least so far — those pursuits have been unsuccessful, an agency spokesperson told The Idaho Statesman. Instead, IDOC will move forward with the “manual process” for its firing squad.

“The facility will be completed with sufficient time for the execution team to train,” Ryan Mortensen, the spokesperson, said in an emailed statement. “IDOC will be prepared with a manual process in place by July 1, utilizing outside law enforcement as needed, and will continue to explore remote-operated system options.”

He did not specify when construction of the chamber at the maximum security prison south of Boise will be finished. The price tag for the renovation still hovers at its more than $900,000 estimate, Mortensen said.

The updates come just days after the U.S. Department of Justice announced it aims to streamline the federal death penalty by reinstating lethal injections and also adding other methods, including a firing squad. The changes were branded an effort by Republican President Donald Trump to reverse death penalty policies enforced by his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

“The prior administration failed in its duty to protect the American people by refusing to pursue and carry out the ultimate punishment against the most dangerous criminals, including terrorists, child murderers, and cop killers,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. “Under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Justice is once again enforcing the law and standing with victims.”

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Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador last week applauded the Trump administration’s push to carry out federal executions by firing squad.

“Terrorists, pedophiles, and child murderers deserve swift justice,” Labrador said in a post on X. “Idaho already made the firing squad our primary execution method. The federal government is catching up!”

Labrador helped author a bill in 2023 that brought back the firing squad as a backup method in Idaho, before the Legislature made it the primary method in a 2025 bill that doesn’t take effect until July 1. That gave IDOC time to rebuild its execution chamber.

Idaho has not carried out the death penalty in nearly 14 years. A failed lethal injection in 2024 helped inspire the Legislature to prioritize the firing squad.

Gov. Brad Little signed each firing squad bill into law, in 2023 and 2025.

“I have long made clear my support of capital punishment,” he said in a statement after signing the law in 2025. “As governor, my job is to follow the law and ensure that lawful criminal sentences are carried out as ordered by the courts.”

Little in the past acknowledged his preference for lethal injection between the two methods, sharing concerns over the impacts on corrections officials from participating in a firing squad execution. IDOC Director Bree Derrick last year echoed similar sentiments about prison staffers taking to the rifles.

“If direct staff involvement in the process becomes necessary, we would seek assistance from law enforcement personnel who are specifically trained and psychologically equipped for such responsibilities,” she said in a statement to The Statesman.

Idaho is under a moratorium against executions issued by a U.S. magistrate judge in the state until IDOC makes changes that allow members of the press to view more of the process during lethal injection executions. That decision is on appeal and awaits a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

But until the upgrades for a firing squad are wrapped up on the execution chamber, IDOC also paused pursuit in April 2025 of carrying out the death penalty. The prison system is expected to withdraw that stoppage once the renovation is complete and the firing squad is implemented July 1, making Idaho the only U.S. state using it as its lead execution method.

Source: seattletimes.com, Kevin Fixler, May 1, 2026

"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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