Idaho becomes first state to prefer death by firing squad for executions

Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed his name on a bill Wednesday making Idaho the only state in the U.S. to have a firing squad designated as the preferred execution method for capital punishment, beginning next year.

The governor’s action comes less than a week after Brad Sigmon, 67, of South Carolina, was executed by way of a firing squad for killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat in 2001.

Sigmon was pronounced dead nearly three minutes after being shot by three volunteer prison employees last Friday – a method used for the first time in 15 years in the U.S.

The Idaho Statesman reported that Idaho has nine prisoners on death row, though the death penalty has not been carried out in the state in over a dozen years.

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Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed legislation Wednesday making death by firing squad the state’s preferred method of execution. (Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Last year, the state was unable to execute Thomas Eugene Creech, one of the longest-serving death row inmates in the U.S. Medical personnel administering the lethal injection failed to establish an IV line despite trying for roughly an hour.

The bill’s tracking sheet shows that over two-thirds of the Republican-controlled legislature supported the measure, which, along with making death by firing squad the preferred method, also kept lethal injection as the state’s backup method.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Little’s office for comment on the matter.

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The execution chamber at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Boise.  (AP Photo/Jessie L. Bonner, File)

Little approved a law in 2023 to add execution by firing squad as the state’s backup execution method, though at the time he said his preferred method was by lethal injection.

Idaho, then became the fifth state in the country to legalize the practice, following Utah, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Mississippi.

This time around, bill sponsor Rep. Bruce Skaug, who previously pushed for legislation that restored the firing squad as a backup option to lethal injection, argued that the botched lethal injection of Creech last year highlights problems with that method.

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Bryan Kohberger, right, is escorted into a courtroom to appear at a hearing in Latah County District Court, Sept. 13, 2023, in Moscow, Idaho.  (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

The newly legalized execution method could impact the state’s eight current death row inmates and possibly the future University of Idaho college murders suspect Bryan Kohberger. 

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Little signed the bill as prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty for Kohberger if he is convicted. His trial is scheduled for later this year, and he faces four charges of first-degree murder and another charge of felony burglary.

A judge entered not-guilty pleas on his behalf at his arraignment. 

Fox News Digital’s Michael Ruiz and Stepheny Price contributed to this report.