Idaho has become the first US state to make the firing squad its primary method of execution, marking a significant shift in the country's use of capital punishment as states continue to face difficulties carrying out lethal injections.

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The state's newly renovated execution chamber officially became operational on 1 July after the Idaho Department of Correction completed a more than $1 million project at its maximum-security prison south of Boise. The upgrade includes AR-style, .308-calibre rifles that will be used by volunteer marksmen during executions.

Idaho adopts firing squad as primary method

Under Idaho's protocol, three anonymous volunteers selected by prison officials will carry out executions. The state currently has eight inmates on death row.

The department said it is prepared to carry out executions and that its procedures are designed to ensure they are conducted in a "secure, orderly, and dignified manner."

Shift driven by problems with lethal injection

Idaho's decision follows growing challenges with lethal injection, the most common execution method in the United States.

In February 2024, the state halted the planned execution of convicted murderer Thomas Creech after medical personnel were unable to establish an intravenous line. Similar problems have occurred in other states, while restrictions on the supply of execution drugs have further complicated the use of lethal injections.

Alabama has also faced legal challenges over its use of nitrogen gas asphyxiation after federal courts ruled against the method earlier this year.

Against that backdrop, several states have turned to firing squads. Idaho is now the seventh state to authorise the method in some form, joining Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah, while Florida and Tennessee also permit its use under certain circumstances.

Supporters argue that firing squads provide a faster and more reliable means of execution because bullets aimed at the heart rapidly stop blood circulation to the brain.

Executions raise concerns over pain and accuracy

Despite those claims, recent executions have fuelled debate over whether the method consistently works as intended.

Historical records show that several firing squad executions in the United States have resulted in prolonged deaths after shooters failed to strike the intended target. Among the 147 civilian firing squad executions recorded since 1608 are cases in which prisoners remained alive for several minutes after being shot.

Questions have also emerged over more recent executions.

A 2010 execution in Utah prompted later scrutiny after forensic experts reviewing autopsy photographs concluded the bullets appeared to have struck outside the intended area around the heart, raising concerns that the inmate may have experienced prolonged suffering.

File photo courtesy of The Guardian

Similar concerns followed the April 2025 execution of South Carolina inmate Mikal Mahdi. Witnesses reported that Mahdi cried out after being shot and continued breathing for more than a minute. Autopsy findings reviewed by independent forensic experts suggested the bullets missed the left ventricle of the heart, potentially prolonging his death.

South Carolina officials rejected claims that the execution had been mishandled. The state's Supreme Court later ruled that the execution was not botched, although it acknowledged that the bullets did not directly strike the prisoner's left ventricle.

Experts question growing reliance on firing squads

Legal filings in subsequent court cases have gone further, with defence lawyers and some forensic specialists alleging that marksmen may have intentionally avoided the intended target in certain executions. Those allegations remain speculative, and both Utah and South Carolina authorities have rejected or declined to comment on claims of deliberate misconduct.

Execution experts say the renewed interest in firing squads reflects the wider difficulties states face in maintaining capital punishment rather than renewed confidence in the method itself.

Some legal scholars who previously regarded firing squads as one of the least problematic execution methods now argue that the process still depends on human judgement and therefore remains vulnerable to mistakes or misconduct.

As more states consider alternatives to lethal injection, Idaho's adoption of the firing squad is likely to intensify the national debate over how executions are carried out and whether any method can reliably avoid unnecessary suffering.

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Adapted by ASEAN Now. Source 1 July 2026

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17 minutes ago, webfact said:

The state currently has eight inmates on death row.

Should take no longer than 24 minutes then.

Marched into a room. Held up. Single shot to the back of the head. Dragged out.

Repeated 8 times.

Death Row empty and off the tax payer's book by elevenses.

Plastic sheeting and cheap handgun. Why waste $1 million of tax payer's money.

I prefer the guillotine, it’s hard to survive without a head.

Since 1973, at least 202 people who were wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in the United States have been exonerated.

Tommy Lee Walker (Texas) was officially exonerated by the Dallas County Commissioners Court in January 2026. He was executed in 1953 following a wrongful conviction driven by racial bias and official misconduct.

Usually, once dead, no one is interested to look at new evidence.

Affordable, efficient and no drama. Next to lobbing off their heads, it is a time proven method. What....you dont like it....it's cruel. What about the innocent victims demise that placed the convicted in the current situation. Society, (especially libs), are more interested in the perp's welfare rather than the innocent victim's

.

11 hours ago, JBChiangRai said:

I prefer the guillotine, it’s hard to survive without a head.

I believe that would be '....without a body'.

Quick, easy, cheap, and allows the scientific study of consciousness after head-body separation.

It's just a shame that America is too soft to do it.

This type of execution should be reserved for people who participate in multiple disgusting unthinkable crimes who admit to the guilt and show no remorse.

I don't necessarily have an issue with this as a Centrist Democrat. I'm an outlier as I do support the death penalty when there is sufficient evidence, and when the crime is unquestionable.

I would go even a step further and advocate for death penalty without trial, carried out within 30 days by a tribunal of Judges, if there is sufficient forensic and video evidence. And without the possibility of appeal.

It ends up saving the state of fortune and there are some acts when committed that are a self-revocation of the right to consume oxygen. See ya!

North Korea and Afghanistan come to mind.

Wunnerful Usofa. Forward to the past!

46 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

I would go even a step further and advocate for death penalty without trial, carried out within 30 days by a tribunal of Judges, if there is sufficient forensic and video evidence. And without the possibility of appeal.

It ends up saving the state of fortune and there are some acts when committed that are a self-revocation of the right to consume oxygen. See ya!

The black man that stabbed the white woman in the neck from behind on the bus, for example.

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

I don't necessarily have an issue with this as a Centrist Democrat. I'm an outlier as I do support the death penalty when there is sufficient evidence, and when the crime is unquestionable.

I would go even a step further and advocate for death penalty without trial, carried out within 30 days by a tribunal of Judges, if there is sufficient forensic and video evidence. And without the possibility of appeal.

It ends up saving the state of fortune and there are some acts when committed that are a self-revocation of the right to consume oxygen. See ya!

The china model !!

15 hours ago, webfact said:

"secure, orderly, and dignified manner."

Need to add "barbaric"

1 hour ago, Eric Loh said:

North Korea and Afghanistan come to mind.

Execution by stoning comes to mind:

A legal penalty for offenses including adultery and same-sex relations include Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan, Mauritania, Brunei, and the United Arab Emirates. Stoning also occurs extrajudicialy in Somalia and northern Nigeria.

Now the US can join these premier nations in delivery of justice!

I have always been a proponent of capital punishment, restricted to the most heinous of crimes the names of which I won't list here but I'm sure you can make your own.
It's the method that I can't decide. I've often stated - even on this forum - that paedophiles should be hanged as I like the idea of re-using the hemp rope for the next sicko. You know, reduce, re-use, recycle. But hanging has issues with drop-length-to-weight ratio amongst other things when the condemned can slowly strangled (too short) or decapitated (too long).
Firing Squad: you need people willing to do it; and, as the article states: people miss.
Decapitation: bit messy, innit?
Lethal Injection: finding a qualified person not bound by the Hippocratic Oath to "first do no harm" alongside the current issue of sourcing the chemicals required makes this harder.
Gas Chamber: I find this personally close to torture.
As are: Stoning, Drowning, Beating, and Emtombing.

I do have an option which, no doubt, will probably have its own objectors based on medical knowledge I don't possess: how about you just give the condemned a general anaesthetic and then turn off the oxygen or suck it out of the room - like a reverses gas chamber?

Rig them up with the ventilator and whatever else is used, administer the anaesthetic and when the anaesthetist is sure the condemned is under, turn off the ventilator and/suck the oxygen out of the room. I mean, we don't breathe on our own while under GA anyway.

55 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

Execution by stoning comes to mind:

A legal penalty for offenses including adultery and same-sex relations include Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan, Mauritania, Brunei, and the United Arab Emirates. Stoning also occurs extrajudicialy in Somalia and northern Nigeria.

Now the US can join these premier nations in delivery of justice!

Once we have taken over your country, this will be what we will do to your politicians and white nationalists.

Thanks,

Mohammed

So they "humanly" slaughter billion of animals in slaughterhouses,

but it seems hard to find a good way to terminate convicts ?

2 hours ago, Eric Loh said:

North Korea and Afghanistan come to mind.

And China

I would have had little problem with giving the 6 Jan 21 insurrectionists the firing squad. Too bad they only got Babbitt.

Also, if Biden hadn't made the pity appointment of Garland as AG, Jack Smith could have run Trump up on Sedition, which is a capital offense. 10 U.S. Code § 894 - Art. 94. Mutiny or sedition

Trump could have gotten the firing squad if convicted and saved the US and the world a ton of trouble.

1 hour ago, FlorC said:

So they "humanly" slaughter billion of animals in slaughterhouses,

but it seems hard to find a good way to terminate convicts ?

Kosher or halal. I actually think firing squad is a far more dignified death than lethal inject.

I oppose the death penalty. Too many wrongly convicted with a sentence which cannot be reversed.

4 hours ago, Packer said:

The black man that stabbed the white woman in the neck from behind on the bus, for example.

The skin color seems to mean a lot to you but it means absolutely nothing to me. However the commitment of a major crime does mean something to me, and when it's up a heinous nature all bets are off.

3 hours ago, The Oracle said:

I have always been a proponent of capital punishment, restricted to the most heinous of crimes the names of which I won't list here but I'm sure you can make your own.
It's the method that I can't decide. I've often stated - even on this forum - that paedophiles should be hanged as I like the idea of re-using the hemp rope for the next sicko. You know, reduce, re-use, recycle. But hanging has issues with drop-length-to-weight ratio amongst other things when the condemned can slowly strangled (too short) or decapitated (too long).
Firing Squad: you need people willing to do it; and, as the article states: people miss.
Decapitation: bit messy, innit?
Lethal Injection: finding a qualified person not bound by the Hippocratic Oath to "first do no harm" alongside the current issue of sourcing the chemicals required makes this harder.
Gas Chamber: I find this personally close to torture.
As are: Stoning, Drowning, Beating, and Emtombing.

I do have an option which, no doubt, will probably have its own objectors based on medical knowledge I don't possess: how about you just give the condemned a general anaesthetic and then turn off the oxygen or suck it out of the room - like a reverses gas chamber?

Rig them up with the ventilator and whatever else is used, administer the anaesthetic and when the anaesthetist is sure the condemned is under, turn off the ventilator and/suck the oxygen out of the room. I mean, we don't breathe on our own while under GA anyway.

For me that would be a perfect form of justice, since I believe that certain acts become a self revocation of the right to consume oxygen, so it seems only fitting!

Idaho Makes Firing Squad Primary Execution Method

Keep it cheap for the taxpayers .

Inside short shooting range .one shooter one 357 will do to the back or side or front of the head if not dead in 60 seconds who cares ,shoot Again he/she can suffer for a moment ,not like their victims who will suffer Forever.

6 hours ago, Packer said:

I believe that would be '....without a body'.

Quick, easy, cheap, and allows the scientific study of consciousness after head-body separation.

It's just a shame that America is too soft to do it.

I take back what I said about being able to survive without head & brain, clearly it is possible, as many of the posters here have demonstrated.

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

The skin color seems to mean a lot to you but it means absolutely nothing to me. However the commitment of a major crime does mean something to me, and when it's up a heinous nature all bets are off.

Post "The man that stabbed a woman on a bus" and people mightn't know what you're talking about.

Post "The black man that stabbed a white woman on a bus" and they will likely remember as the video was everywhere, he was very very black, and she was very very white.

They're called descriptive adjectives that build recognition of an event in the reader.

Some people see racism everywhere.

Perhaps I should have said 'The person that stabbed a person on a bus' because stating the gender of the male attacker and the female victim is a gender crime. 🙄

why not televise executions after Monday night football. American taxpayers should get their money's worth

5 hours ago, Wingate said:

I would have had little problem with giving the 6 Jan 21 insurrectionists the firing squad. Too bad they only got Babbitt.

Also, if Biden hadn't made the pity appointment of Garland as AG, Jack Smith could have run Trump up on Sedition, which is a capital offense. 10 U.S. Code § 894 - Art. 94. Mutiny or sedition

Trump could have gotten the firing squad if convicted and saved the US and the world a ton of trouble.

got it. kill your political enemies. a perfect example of how social media facilitates the violent mental illness of the Trump obsessed.

this poster would have volunteered for the shutzstaffel firing squads. total discredit to this forum

This is excellent news. Idaho can start by rounding up poor white trash from trailer parks. Those parasites won't be missed.