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Idaho committee sends bill making firing squad primary execution method to Senate floor
Summary
The Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee voted to advance House Bill 37, which would make the firing squad the first-choice method of execution in Idaho, reversing the current statutory order and prompting questions about humaneness, litigation and impacts on victims and witnesses.
BOISE — The Idaho Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee voted to send House Bill 37 to the full Senate with a “do pass” recommendation after a hearing that included testimony from the bill sponsor, a deputy attorney general and public witnesses for and against the measure.
House Bill 37, presented to the committee by Sen. Doug Ricks (R-District 34), would change the statutory order of execution methods so that a firing squad becomes the primary method and lethal injection becomes secondary. Ricks said the change responds to recent problems carrying out lethal injections, including an execution attempt where officials were unable to secure an intravenous line.
The bill drew testimony from Lamont Anderson, deputy attorney general in the Capital Litigation Unit, who told the committee, “There has not been a botched execution by firing squad in the modern era of the death penalty.” Anderson said courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court in Wilkerson v. Utah, have treated the firing squad as legally…
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