Idaho has become the first US state to adopt the firing squad as its primary execution method, with the state’s department of corrections completing the retrofitting of a death chamber at a maximum security prison south of Boise. The chamber, equipped with a rack of AR-style .308-caliber scoped rifles handled by volunteer marksmen, cost over $1m to establish, including $24,000 for the rifles.
The move comes as lethal injection—the most common method in modern America—has faced increasing difficulties amid an international boycott of medical supplies. In February 2024, Idaho had to abort the execution of convicted murderer Thomas Creech after medical staff failed to establish an IV line. Other states have also experienced botched lethal injections, and Alabama’s adoption of nitrogen gas asphyxiation was recently ruled unconstitutional by federal courts.
Supporters argue the firing squad is foolproof, claiming that bullets targeting the left ventricle of the heart cause instantaneous death. However, forensic experts warn the method can be “excruciating” if it goes wrong. Of the four firing squad executions conducted in the US since 2010, two appear to have been botched, with bullets missing their intended target and causing prolonged, agonising deaths. Allegations have even been raised in US supreme court filings that such blunders may be intentionally inflicted as retribution.
Idaho joins six other states—Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, Florida, and Tennessee—that authorise firing squad executions, marking the highest number of US jurisdictions permitting judicial killing by gunfire in history. The state’s new death protocol keeps the identities of the three volunteer shooters known only to the prisons director and deputy, and they will be responsible for executing Idaho’s eight death row inmates.
