BOISE, Idaho – The Idaho Department of Corrections is taking steps to reconfigure a portion of the state’s largest prison to prepare to execute inmates by firing squad.
In 2023, Idaho lawmakers approved the firing squad as a method of execution if the state could not obtain the chemicals needed to carry out an execution by lethal injection.
A bill moving through this Idaho legislative session would allow firing squad regardless of the status of legal injection chemicals.
Idaho previously allowed the firing squad as an alternate form of execution from 1982 until 2009. It was never used.
The Idaho Department of Corrections (DOC) confirmed to 4 News Now that construction is underway to retrofit the F block at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution to accommodate death by firing squad.
Phase one consisted of imaging, design, engineering and initial construction at a cost of $313,915.
Phase two will consist of a full renovation of the remainder of the F block at a cost of $952,589.
DOC did not say when phase two will begin.
There are eight people right now on Idaho’s death row. The state has not executed anyone since 2012.
In early 2024, Idaho attempted to execute a killer named Thomas Creech, but the execution team was unable to establish an IV line. A new death warrant has been issued, but the execution is on hold pending Creech’s appeal to a federal judge.
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