BOISE, Idaho — Idaho legislation to reinstate the firing squad as a method of execution has cleared another hurdle and is on its way to the House floor for debate.
The bill sponsor, Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, said that Idaho is finding it difficult to obtain lethal injection drugs, so Idaho has a responsibility to carry out the rule of law -- the death penalty -- by firing squad.
Gerald Pizzuto, convicted of murdering two people in McCall in 1985, was sentenced to death and set to be executed last year -- but the Idaho Department of Corrections called it off due to lack of the drugs needed for the execution.
Regardless, the Idaho Attorney General's Office ordered Pizzuto to be sentenced to death anyway within 30 days of the order. Following the order, HB 186 was introduced.
The bill would only allow the firing squad method if the lethal injection method could not be carried out. Skaug told the committee there are "executions that may never happen" due to the lack of drugs.
LaMont Anderson, who is the lead attorney for the Idaho Attorney General's Capital Litigation Unit, told the committee that drug companies "refuse to sell the drugs" and then the states that have the lethal drugs refuse to share them with other states, or disclose where the drugs came from, making them nearly impossible to obtain.
Idaho has never executed a death row inmate by firing squad, and the method was later abolished in 2009. Anderson said four other states -- Utah, Mississippi, South Carolina and Oklahoma all have reinstated the firing squad when lethal injection is unavailable. Other methods are available, Anderson said, but there are more complications that can result.
Rev. Hillary Taylor, an anti-death penalty activist, told the committee that in South Carolina the legislature wasted time and money coming up with protocols following the approval of the firing squad. Just because the firing squad was re-introduced, Taylor said it doesn't mean that executions suddenly "started back up" again.
"My state wasted the average teachers salary for something they might never use," Taylor said. "It's a waste of time and money."
According to Jeff Ray, spokesperson for IDOC, the department doesn't have a current estimation of how much a firing squad execution would cost. Skaug's bill implies that $750,000 would be used for the Department of Correction to refurbish its facility in order to reinstate the firing squad.
In a legislative report from 2014, it states that the department's cost for two executions was $102,567 -- but that was for lethal injection measures.
Many lawmakers on the committee seemed struck by the matter of the topic. Rep. Joe Alfieri, R- Coeur d’ Alene, said that he supported the bill, but it was "with a heavy heart."
Rep. David Cannon, R-Blackfoot, said another option may be to just wait out the lack of lethal drugs. Cannon said the appeals process takes a long time, and most death row inmates die in prison before their execution date.
“We could wait and see about obtaining the drug if it corrects itself," Cannon said. "I don't think, to me, it's necessary to react in a knee-jerk way.”
The bill passed 13-3, and will be sent to the House floor for debate. Cannon was the only Republican to side with the Democrats in the committee.
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