Gov. Brad Little signed an Idaho firing squad bill into law. The last firing squad execution killed Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010.
Republican Idaho Gov. Brad Little has signed into law a bill allowing firing squads to execute death row inmates when lethal injection drugs are unavailable, making Idaho the fifth U.S. state to allow the execution method.
"While I am signing this bill, it is important to point out that fulfilling justice can and must be done by minimizing stress on corrections personnel," Little wrote in a transmittal letter after signing the bill, as reported by the Idaho Statesman. "For the people on death row, a jury convicted them of their crimes, and they were lawfully sentenced to death. It is the responsibility of the state of Idaho to follow the law and ensure that lawful criminal sentences are carried out.
States have faced difficulties obtaining drugs required for longstanding lethal injection programs. Pharmaceutical companies increasingly have barred executioners from using their drugs, saying they were meant to save lives, not take them. The last inmate to be executed by firing squad in the U.S. was Ronnie Lee Gardner. He was executed at Utah State Prison on June 18, 2010, for killing an attorney during a courthouse escape attempt. Utah is the only state to have used firing squads in the past 50 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
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