Death row convicts in Idaho could be executed by firing squad if no lethal injection is available, according to a bill passed Monday by the legislature of the western US state.
The bill, which is approved by the Senate of the conservative state by 24 votes in favor to 11 against, must now be signed into the ordinance by the governor.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center that Idaho would become the fifth US state to approve execution by firing squad, after Utah, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and South Carolina.
Since 1976 and the end of a short suspension on the death sentence in the United States, two men and a woman have been executed in this way, all in Utah, and also in the west. The last one was in 2010.
The US states which have the death punishment have been encountering great difficulty in acquiring the chemical elements essential for a killer injection, due to opposition by pharmaceutical firms which do not want to be associated with executions.
Death by firing squad would appear in Idaho only if lethal injection were not possible. The American Civil Liberties Union condemned the passage of the law as “appalling”, calling the ruling “archaic.”
ACLU Idaho said in a statement a firing squad is particularly gruesome because such executions leave lasting scars on all those concerned. Those killed by firing squad “likely experience fierce levels of pain and torture”, added the organization, citing experts.
