Why It Matters
Idaho is set to become one of just a handful of states that carry out executions by firing squad, with the transition taking effect on July 1, 2026. The shift follows a failed lethal injection attempt in 2024 and subsequent legislation making the firing squad the state’s primary execution method. For the eight individuals currently on Idaho’s death row, the change is more than procedural — it marks the first time the state has moved toward carrying out an execution in 14 years.
What Happened
The Idaho Department of Correction has been quietly preparing for the transition for over a year. Retrofit construction on the state’s execution chamber began in May 2025 and is now complete. Authorities are recruiting six law enforcement volunteers — all required to hold POST certification with a minimum of three years of service — to staff the firing squad team.
The team structure will consist of three primary shooters, two alternates, and one team leader. During an actual execution, the three-member firing squad will shoot a seated prisoner from approximately 10 yards. Marksman qualification requires candidates to hit a target at a minimum distance of 7 yards without missing.
Strict eligibility requirements govern who may serve. Volunteers cannot have any firearms, use-of-force, or related disciplinary action on their record within the prior year. They also cannot have any blood or legal relationship to the condemned prisoner, the prisoner’s family, the victim, or the victim’s relatives. The identities of all team members will be kept strictly confidential, with only the state prisons director and the deputy prisons chief authorized to know their names.
By the Numbers
- $1.2 million — total cost of the execution chamber retrofit project
- $900,000+ — construction costs for the chamber renovation
- $314,000 — design and engineering expenses
- $24,000+ — total spent on five AR-style Daniel Defense DD5-P .308-caliber rifles, each equipped with a scope, suppressor, and bipod at roughly $4,844 per unit
- 8 — inmates currently on Idaho’s death row, seven men and one woman, all convicted of murder
- 14 years — time since Idaho last carried out an execution, a lethal injection in June 2012
Zoom Out
Idaho joins a short list of states that permit firing squad executions. Of the 27 U.S. states that still have the death penalty, only five — Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah — allow the firing squad as an execution method. South Carolina is the most recent state to use it, having carried out three such executions last year. Utah last conducted a firing squad execution in June 2010.
Idaho’s path to this point was shaped by practicality as much as policy. The state Legislature first designated the firing squad as a backup execution method in 2023, allocating $750,000 for chamber renovations. After a 2024 lethal injection attempt failed, lawmakers in 2025 elevated the firing squad to the primary method — though no additional funding was included in that legislation, leaving the Department of Correction to absorb remaining costs.
Critics of capital punishment argue that no method has proven entirely reliable. Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said, “Every new execution method in history has been introduced with the promise that it will be foolproof and ‘more humane’ than the previous method.” Supporters of the change counter that the firing squad is a straightforward, time-tested method that avoids the legal and logistical complications that have plagued lethal injection protocols in recent years.
The broader debate over capital punishment continues across the Mountain West and nationally, with states weighing both the moral and operational dimensions of maintaining active death penalty programs. For Idaho, the more immediate question is whether the state will be ready — logistically and legally — to proceed with executions once the calendar turns to July.
What’s Next
With the chamber retrofit complete and rifle purchases finalized, the remaining step before Idaho can proceed with executions is completing the recruitment and certification of the firing squad team. Officials have not announced a specific execution date. All eight inmates currently on death row were convicted of murder, and any scheduled execution would follow standard legal review processes, including any final appeals. The criminal justice system in Idaho continues to handle high-profile cases that underscore ongoing public interest in how the state administers its laws.
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