Idaho lawmakers are considering turning to a firing squad as an alternative to lethal injection after eight botched attempts to find a vein to administer the chemicals on a death row inmate Wednesday.
Last year, the state approved legislation authorizing the firing squad execution method only when lethal injection wasn’t available. After Wednesday’s events, Rep. Bruce Skaug (R-ID), who sponsored the bill, told Local News 8 he wanted to amend the law to permit a firing squad as a plan B in scenarios like Creech’s where lethal injection is unsuccessful.
“I have already communicated with the attorney general that I would like to amend the bill to allow for a firing squad in situations such as this so justice can be carried out for the victims and their families,” Skaug said.
The state paused lethal injection executions after three medical team members were unable to locate veins in death row inmate Thomas Eugene Creech’s arms and legs after eight attempts to do so. In Alabama, unsuccessful attempts to carry out lethal injection prompted the controversial use of nitrogen gas executions as the drugs for lethal injection have become harder to obtain.
Creech, 73, was sentenced to death in 1981 after being convicted of murdering five people in three different states, including beating another inmate to death. This would have been Idaho’s first execution in 12 years.
The state’s Corrections Director, Josh Tewalt, said at a news conference that the death warrant for Creech will expire and that they are being careful of the state’s 8th amendment, which prevents infliction of cruel and unusual punishment, as they consider a path forward.
“At this point, Idaho law allows for execution by lethal injection or firing squad now,” Tewalt told reporters. “We do not have the facilities or physical capabilities of carrying out firing squad and we will continue to work on those efforts.”
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Skaug told the outlet that using a firing squad was a “humane and speedy” backup plan for when lethal injection drugs are unavailable. Idaho, along with five other states, is able to use a firing squad as an alternative execution method.
Conversations about execution methods ignited after Alabama became the first state to adopt and use nitrogen hypoxia in an execution last month. Alabama, who touted nitrogen gas as a humane alternative to lethal injection, prompted other state lawmakers to consider additional methods of execution after lethal injection has become more unreliable. The method was then adopted in Mississippi and Oklahoma.
