Gateway Pundit | by Cassandra MacDonald Mar. 25, 2023 8:00 pm
Republican Idaho Gov. Brad Little has signed a bill to allow executions by firing squad.
Idaho is now the fifth state in the nation to allow this form of capital punishment, but Utah is currently the only state that has used it in the last four decades.
The bill had passed through the Idaho legislature on March 20 with a veto-proof majority.
In a letter to state House Speaker Mike Moyle, also a Republican, the governor wrote, “throughout my life in public service, I have supported capital punishment when our justice system determines death is the only appropriate sentence for a person who committed a heinous crime. The families of the victims deserve justice for their loved ones and the death penalty is a way to bring them peace.”
There has long been a shortage of the chemicals needed for legal lethal injection. One execution was already delayed in the state due to inability to acquire it.
“I am signing House Bill 186 because I support policies that allow the state of Idaho to successfully carry out the death penalty,” Gov. Little continued. “It is the same reason I signed House Bill 658 in 2022, legislation to help the state acquire the chemicals necessary to perform lethal injection. I have not given up on the state’s ability to acquire the chemicals, and I believe the bill I signed into law last year helped expand options that would not have been available without it.”
