State Gov't Proposes Reinstating Firing Squad as 'Quickest, Surest and Most Error-Free' Death Penalty Method
Lawmakers in Idaho have put the time-tested execution method of the firing squad back on the table for their state’s death row inmates, and one legal scholar agrees it is the right move.
Modern society might view the method as archaic, but there is no denying its efficacy.
Multiple shooters line up and point their rifles at a monster who long ago proved he or she had no business living among civilized people. Triggers are pulled and the whole thing is over pretty quickly. It might be bloody, but it works – unlike lethal injections, which have proven unreliable in recent years.
Alabama continues to have issues with convicted murderers surviving its attempts to kill them.
Eight people are currently on death row in Idaho, but the state can’t find the drugs needed to rid itself of murderer Gerald Pizzuto Jr., who has received numerous extensions in recent months.
Pizzuto killed two people in cold blood 37 years ago but continues to eat at the expense of taxpayers, The Idaho Mountain Express reported Thursday.
State lawmakers recently drafted what one of them called veto-proof legislation that would bring back the firing squad as an option for the condemned if lethal injection is unavailable.
GOP state Rep. Bruce Skaug said in a statement to CNN last week that a bill to bring back firing squads will become law whether Republican Gov. Brad Little agrees with it or not.
“H186 has now passed the Idaho Senate and House with a veto proof majority,” Skaug said. “Upon signature of the Governor, the state may now more likely carry out justice, as determined by our judicial system, against those who have committed first degree murder.”
Execution by firing squad may soon be legal in Idaho, which means Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students, could be among the first to face it if he’s convicted. The lawmaker who sponsored the bill joins @danabrams.#DanAbramsLive pic.twitter.com/OYpsHA4dN2
— NewsNation (@NewsNation) March 22, 2023
During an interview with Fox News, Fordham Law School professor Deborah Denno criticized the “sad state” of the country’s capital punishment system as she advocated for firing squads.
“Within the past few years, we’ve had three people survive lethal injection executions when they were supposed to die,” Denno said. “And this is after over two hours of people trying to kill them and the state basically saying, ‘You’ve got to stop.'”
She told the network she is not necessarily in favor of capital punishment, describing herself as “death penalty agnostic.”
“I just think if we’re going to be executing people, it should be done in the most humane way possible,” Denno said.
“The firing squad is the quickest, surest and most error-free and the only technique for which we have skilled and trained professionals,” she said.
The professor has studied the death penalty for decades and predicted many inmates might choose a firing squad over lethal injection.
Denno pointed to Tennessee, where she said inmates have chosen to ride the lightning in the electric chair since it was reinstated as an option.
A firing squad is a legal execution method in Mississippi, Oklahoma, Utah and South Carolina – and it is constitutional.
Only Utah has used it in recent decades. From 1976 to 2010, the state executed three convicted killers by firing squad.
None of them woke up to inquire about why they weren’t dead.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
