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Idaho Governor Signs Controversial Firing Squad Execution Bill into Law

by Andrew Wright
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The Governor of Idaho, Governor Brad Little recently approved a law that will allow people to be executed by firing squad instead. This will only happen if the state cannot get enough drugs to use with lethal injection. Many other states in America are also using older methods of deadly punishment due to a shortage of lethal-injection drugs.

More and more drug companies won’t allow the use of their medications for executions because those drugs were made to help people, not hurt them. In Idaho, one person waiting on death row has had to wait longer than expected due to a lack of access to the drugs needed for them to be executed.

Because of a shortage, other states have started using older ways of executing people. Only Mississippi, Utah, Oklahoma, and South Carolina are allowed to use firing squads if no other execution methods can be used – but South Carolina’s law is on suspension due to a court case.

Some states are starting to use electric chairs as a back-up when lethal drugs cannot be found. Other states have chosen, or even used, experimental methods of execution. In 2018, Nevada carried out the death penalty on Carey Dean Moore with fentanyl and other drugs that had never been combined like that before. Alabama has created an execution process involving nitrogen gas (which has not yet been used).

When I signed this bill, I wanted to make sure that those responsible for carrying out justice are not too stressed. People on death row have been found guilty of their crimes by a jury and were given the sentence of death, so it is up to Idaho to follow their laws and make sure their sentences are fulfilled.

In the last few months of President Donald Trump’s time in office, something special happened – 13 executions took place. The federal government changed the drug used for lethal injection to a sedative called pentobarbital, and even allowed firing squads if needed, although none were used.

Some lawyers argued that shooting someone would be faster and less painful than using a drug called pentobarbital, which causes feeling like you’re drowning. However, in 2019 the U.S government said shooting people will cause severe pain for 10 seconds due to bones being broken or damage to the spinal cord.

President Joe Biden’s lawyer, Merrick Garland, has asked for there to be a break in federal executions this year while the Department of Justice takes a closer look. He didn’t tell us how long it will last.

Doug Ricks, a Republican Senator from Idaho, said that it might be hard for the state to obtain drugs for lethal injection. He also thinks that death by firing squad is more humane and this new bill would guarantee that laws are obeyed.

But Senator Dan Foreman, who is a Republican, believes that executing someone with a firing squad is not respectful to the state of Idaho. He believed that it will cause emotional upset, not just to the person being executed, but also to those who are witnessing or involved in it afterwards.

This law was started by a guy named Bruce Skaug who’s in the Republican Party. The law is happening because recently, we couldn’t execute someone called Gerald Pizzuto Jr. He has cancer and other bad illnesses, and he has been on death row for over 30 years due to his involvement in the killings of two gold miners. To do executions with a firing squad, it’ll cost around $750,000.

Jeff Tewalt, the Agency Director, doesn’t really want to make his workers take part in a shooting squad.

Tewalt and Kevin Kempf had an important job – to get the drugs necessary for Richard Albert Leavitt’s execution in 2012. To do this, they travelled to Tacoma, Washington with more than fifteen thousand dollars and bought the drugs from a pharmacist. The department kept their trip secret but it was discovered later on by professor Aliza Cover when she asked for the information as part of her public records act request.

During his campaign, Biden promised to help remove the death penalty from our country, but now as president he’s staying quiet on it. People are concerned because this might give people the idea that he’s comfortable with states using methods of execution instead of the death penalty.

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