Zthose sentenced to death could soon be executed by firing squad in the US state of Idaho. The Senate of the state in the north of the USA passed a corresponding law on Monday (local time), as reported by US media. The Idaho House of Representatives had previously approved it. It provides for the possibility of execution by firing squad if the chemicals for lethal injection are not available. The text of the law is now with the governor to sign.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, there have been three executions by firing squad in the United States since 1976, most recently in Utah in 2010. Only the states of Mississippi, Utah, and Oklahoma currently allow firing squads when other methods of execution are unavailable. A corresponding law in South Carolina was challenged and is going through the courts there.
Lack of lethal preparations
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 23 of the 50 states have abolished the death penalty. In US states with the death penalty, lethal injection is the primary method used. Due to a lack of the necessary lethal preparations, executions have repeatedly been postponed in recent years.
Death-penalty states in the US have had great difficulty obtaining lethal injection drugs because drug companies do not want to be associated with the death penalty. Execution by firing squad is said to be allowed in Idaho only when execution by lethal injection is not possible.
There is now an alternative to carrying out the death sentence, Attorney General Raúl Labrador told the local newspaper “Idaho Statesman”. He was involved in drafting the text of the law.
The civil rights organization American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) condemned the passage of the law as “appalling” and described the legal text as “archaic”. “Firing squads are especially cruel, and such executions leave scars on everyone involved,” said ACLU Idaho. Those executed by firing squad “are likely to suffer extreme pain and agony,” the organization added, citing experts.
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