Death row inmates in the US state of Idaho may soon be put to death by firing squad. A bill permitting execution by firing squad in the absence of fatal injections was approved by the state legislature on Monday, according to AFP. The bill was approved by the conservative state’s Senate with 24 votes in favor and 11 votes against. The governor must now sign the bill into law.
Idaho will become the sixth American state to authorize death by firing squad once the statute is approved.
The other four states, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, are Utah, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and South Carolina.
Death by firing squad will only be allowed if lethal injection is not possible
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a nonprofit organization, has called the law’s passing “appalling” and described it as “archaic.”
“A firing squad is particularly gruesome…such executions leave lasting scars on all those involved,” said the organization’s Idaho arm in a statement. Citing experts, ACLU said that those executed by firing squad “likely experience extreme levels of pain and torture”.
Death by firing squad will only be allowed if lethal injection is not possible.
Recently, American states that permit the death sentence have had trouble obtaining the chemicals needed for lethal injection. This is alleged because pharmaceutical firms oppose it since they don’t want their names to be connected to executions.
Since 1976, two men and a woman have been executed in this manner in the United States; the most recent was in 2010. All three of these individuals were executed in Utah, a state in the western United States.