Idaho beefs up firing squad as Bryan Kohbeger trial nears

"I, along with many others, believe the firing squad is more certain, has less appellate issues, and is more humane than other forms of execution," Idaho state Rep. Bruce Skaug, who introduced the legislation, told Fox News Digital. "We had a botched lethal injection attempt in Idaho last year."

In March 2023, the state revived the firing squad as a backup option for when lethal injection, a troubled and increasingly controversial method of execution, is not available.

The new move would make the firing squad the state's primary means of capital punishment - without any additional cost to taxpayers, since funding for the execution chamber was included in the previous bill.

Fordham Law School professor Deborah Denno, a leading expert on the death penalty in the U.S., previously told Fox News Digital that the firing squad is accepted as the most efficient and humane means of execution.

Lethal injections have been plagued by mishaps, drug shortages and botched attempts. Creech was the fourth person to survive a lathe execution in just the last few years.

Denno has advocated for giving inmates a choice in their means of execution.

Matt Mangino, a former Pennsylvania prosecutor who wrote a book on capital punishment, "The Executioner's Toll, 2010," said in the current political climate, he believes the new Idaho bill will pass.

Lethal injections look modern and even "clinical," he said, but can be far more gruesome than they appear. One of the drugs in the typical injection cocktail is a paralyltic meant to keep the condemned from writhing - for witness' comfort not their own. 

Idaho currently has eight death row inmates, including Creech, and is gearing up or a high-profile trial over the stabbing murders of four college students. Suspect Bryan Kohberger, a 30-year-old former criminology Ph.D. student, could face the death penalty if convicted.

The firing squad bill remains in committee. A hearing and public testimony has not yet been scheduled, Skaug said.