News from the heartland
Idaho bill would remove firing squad death option
By Sarah D. Wire Of The Associated Press
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
BOISE - A firing squad would no longer be an option for Idaho executions under a bill approved Tuesday by a House committee.
Idaho still allows firing squads, but only as a backup in case a Department of Correction director should deem lethal injection impractical in a specific case, Deputy Attorney General Lamont Anderson told the House Judiciary and Rules Committee.
Correction Department spokesman Jeff Ray said although it is up to the department director to decide if it would be impractical to use lethal injection, he can't foresee a situation where that would happen.
The bill would align several sections of Idaho's execution laws with a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision that concluded lethal injection does not violate the 8th Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
Anderson said it's important to change the law to reduce the likelihood of litigation over the state's execution laws.
He said one inmate, Tim Dunlap, on death row for a 1991 murder in Caribou County, is challenging the legality of the state execution laws.
Idaho hasn't seen an execution since Keith Wells died by lethal injection in 1994. According to the state Department of Correction, there are 16 men and one woman currently on death row. Several are getting close to their last appeals, Anderson said.
According to the Idaho State Historical Society, the state has never executed someone by firing squad or even trained people as firing squad executioners. Amber Beierle, interpretive specialist at the Historical Society museum at the Old Idaho Penitentiary, said the 10 executions that took place at the prison were by hanging.
"Executions happened so infrequently there was never even a reason to keep an executioner on staff," Beierle said.
Beierle said hanging was the preferred method of execution in the state until a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. That ruling struck down every state's death penalty law.
By Sarah D. Wire Of The Associated Press
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
BOISE - A firing squad would no longer be an option for Idaho executions under a bill approved Tuesday by a House committee.
Idaho still allows firing squads, but only as a backup in case a Department of Correction director should deem lethal injection impractical in a specific case, Deputy Attorney General Lamont Anderson told the House Judiciary and Rules Committee.
Correction Department spokesman Jeff Ray said although it is up to the department director to decide if it would be impractical to use lethal injection, he can't foresee a situation where that would happen.
The bill would align several sections of Idaho's execution laws with a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision that concluded lethal injection does not violate the 8th Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
Anderson said it's important to change the law to reduce the likelihood of litigation over the state's execution laws.
He said one inmate, Tim Dunlap, on death row for a 1991 murder in Caribou County, is challenging the legality of the state execution laws.
Idaho hasn't seen an execution since Keith Wells died by lethal injection in 1994. According to the state Department of Correction, there are 16 men and one woman currently on death row. Several are getting close to their last appeals, Anderson said.
According to the Idaho State Historical Society, the state has never executed someone by firing squad or even trained people as firing squad executioners. Amber Beierle, interpretive specialist at the Historical Society museum at the Old Idaho Penitentiary, said the 10 executions that took place at the prison were by hanging.
"Executions happened so infrequently there was never even a reason to keep an executioner on staff," Beierle said.
Beierle said hanging was the preferred method of execution in the state until a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. That ruling struck down every state's death penalty law.