More than 1,600 people have been put to death in the U.S. in the last half-century. Only three have been by firing squad.
South Carolina is set to make it four Friday evening when it is scheduled to kill Brad Sigmon by firing squad. Idaho is now looking to add to the count, further.
The state - which is home to famous killers such as Chad Daybell and suspects such as Bryan Kohberger - wants to remodel or build a facility to execute its death row prisoners by firing squad. A lack of the lethal cocktail needed in the more traditional injection executions has forced states to find alternative ways to carry out death sentences.
Idaho’s push to bring back firing squads, has faced backlash. The state’s major construction union has said it will not participate. Opponents of the method paint it as barbaric.
It has left the state unable to fulfill its hope of returning to firing squad deaths.
“What is lawful and what is ethical are two separate inquiries; acting lawfully may not equate to acting ethically,” wrote Andrew C Erstad, chair of the Idaho Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, to Governor Brad Little, the Department of Administration and Department of Public Works in February 2024 following a government request for construction bids.
Building A Facility
The chapter prohibits its 420 members from building facilities related to execution, explained Erstad. “Designing spaces intended to end human life is inconsistent with the ideal of upholding human rights.”
The Independent obtained a cache of documents through an open records request revealing the difficulties Idaho correctional officials have faced in recruiting designers to build its new firing squad facility after the passage of a 2023 bill cementing the method as a backup to lethal injections.
Idaho Department of Correction Director Josh Tewalt noted the issue in a 2024 letter to staff following the state’s failed attempt at executing Thomas Creech, a 74-year-old serial killer convicted of murdering five people. Executioners tried putting Creech to death via lethal injection but couldn’t establish an IV line after trying eight times. His veins kept collapsing, department officials said.
The state’s inability to kill Creech, Tewalt noted, prompted questions about using a firing squad as a secondary execution method for Idaho’s nine death row prisoners — so the department began working to “retrofit F Block, our current execution chamber, and accommodate a firing squad.
“Those initial efforts were unsuccessful because contractors who would engage in this type of work have expressed their unwillingness to work on a project related to executions,” Tewalt admitted, adding, “Efforts are ongoing.”
Once the state passed the firing squad bill, lawmakers appropriated $750,000 to remodel Idaho’s execution chamber at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Ada County. The total estimated cost ballooned to $1.26 million, with anticipated changes including ballistic glazing and detention doors.
But construction hasn’t started yet, a Division of Public Works spokesperson said in an email, claiming the Department of Corrections has held up the renovations.
An IDOC spokesperson confirmed construction has not begun but did not clarify what is causing the delay.
Design Difficulties
Department officials haven’t finalized firing squad policies and procedures, the spokesperson continued, pronouncing the department is now “considering the use of a remote-operated weapons system alongside traditional firing squad methods.”
No additional details were provided.
So far, at least one company — Okland Construction — has held discussions relating to performing the work, according to emails and an estimate submitted by the firm mentioning an “Action Squad” space. Okland has a history of building and designing correctional facilities.
However, the company appeared skeptical it could find collaborators to finish the job.
“We reached out to several design firms to help and they have all declined,” Okland Director Ben Petzinger wrote in an email last year to an IDOC project manager. “It doesn’t look promising that we would be successful in finding a design/build partner given the American Institute of Architects' stance on designing this part of a correctional facility.”
Okland and Petzinger did not respond to emailed requests for comment.
Despite the construction lag, state lawmakers are doubling down on their efforts to make firing squad executions a reality. In February, the state House overwhelmingly passed legislation that would make firing squads Idaho’s primary way of putting inmates to death. The bill passed the Senate Wednesday and is awaiting Little’s signature, bringing Idaho one step closer to being the only state in the nation with such a policy.
Mixed Opinions
During public comments regarding the legislation last month, several Idaho residents voiced their support for the then-proposed bill.
Daniel Murphy, of Boise, suggested Idahoans might even donate the bullets needed for executions.
He quoted Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s 2017 comments issued as part of a dissent in which she said: “In addition to being near instant, death by shooting may also be comparatively painless.” Sotomayor made the remarks in response to an Alabama inmate who’d requested to be executed via firing squad.
“Take six rounds of [5.56x45mm] and eight rifles... The job is complete,” continued Murphy.
Speaking in opposition, Kate Lopez, a Twin Falls resident, questioned how firing squad executions would work. “As I understand it, death by firing squad requires a hood over the head, restraints on the limbs, targets to the heart,” she said. “The state must fund the facilities using my taxpayer dollars that I would prefer be spent on education.”
Only four other states — Utah, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Mississippi — allow firing squad executions. Yet, none of the states use them as a primary method. The last firing squad execution was in 2010 in Utah.
Idaho has eight men and one woman on death row. All of the men have been convicted of murder, including Daybell, who was sentenced to death in June for killing his first wife and the two children of his second wife, Lori Vallow.
Robin Row, the only female death row inmate, was convicted of the 1992 arson deaths of her husband, son and daughter in Ada County.
One high-profile accused killer who might join them is 30-year-old Kohberger, who has been charged in connection to the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students: Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21.
On November 13, 2022, , Kohberger allegedly entered the home the three women shared around 4 a.m. and murdered the victims. Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt told reporters each victim was stabbed with a large knife and there was “quite a bit of blood” at the crime scene. Police discovered the bodies on the victims’ beds, leading them to think they were asleep when they were attacked.
Kohberger’s trial is set to start in August. Prosecutors have said they’ll seek the death penalty if he is convicted. On Tuesday, his attorneys filed a 28-page motion insisting he shouldn’t be executed because he has autism.
The Future Of Executions
Challenges with renovating the state’s execution chamber underscore ongoing obstacles to capital punishment. Lethal injection manufacturers are hard to come by out of fear of criticism from the general public. That has led to a shortage of the drugs needed.
Six states — Arkansas, California, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana and North Carolina — have a de facto moratorium on executions due to challenges with lethal injections. In Idaho’s case, the state hasn’t executed anyone since 2012.
In some instances, staff members performing executions are inadequately trained or not qualified to perform them, leading to complications, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Robin Maher, the organization’s director, foresees legal challenges to firing squad executions and has concerns over putting aside resources to make them happen.
“They're willing to put that kind of investment into executing people, and I would say, likely, over the objections of many members of the public that would have other uses for those funds,” she said, pointing the finger at state lawmakers.
The public’s enthrallment with firing squad executions detracts from what she believes are more important questions, such as whether we should be executing people and who are we executing now.
“This tremendous fascination with the new methods that are being proposed now and utilized is really a distraction,” she said.
