By Ruth Brown, Idaho Reports
The House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee sent a bill to the House floor on Wednesday that could bring back the firing squad as a method of execution.
Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, introduced the bill, which passed in a 13-3 vote. The only Republican to side with Democrats in a no vote was Rep. David Cannon, R-Blackfoot.
Lethal injection is currently the only legal form of execution in Idaho. Skaug said the bill is necessary after the Idaho Department of Correction had to cancel the previously scheduled execution of Gerald Pizzuto Jr. in November. IDOC stated it could not obtain the chemicals necessary to carry out an execution by lethal injection last year.
Now, the timeline is even more expedited because the Idaho Attorney General’s Office requested a new death as the warrant for Pizzuto on Feb. 24. An Idaho judge scheduled his execution for March 23.
IDOC reported in a news release on Feb. 24 that it did not yet have the necessary chemicals to execute Pizzuto.
After the new death warrant was issued, Pizzuto’s attorneys questioned the timing of the AG’s request, as Skaug had only introduced the firing squad bill two days earlier. Pizzuto, 66, has been on Idaho’s death row after being convicted in the 1985 deaths of Berta Herndon and her nephew Delbert Herndon outside of McCall. His two co-defendants, William Odom and James Rice, were given lesser sentences for their roles in the crime.
In 2022, the Legislature passed a bill that would have granted anonymity to any pharmacy or company that supplied the needed chemicals for an execution. Skaug said multiple states, including Utah, have legalized the use of the firing squad, in part because lethal injection chemicals are harder to obtain.
“This is a rule of law issue,” Skaug said. “It’s not about whether you’re for or against the death penalty. The death penalty is the law for first-degree murders in the state of Idaho. I believe it is our job and the attorney general’s job to carry it out.”
Deputy Attorney General Lamont Anderson, of the Idaho Attorney General’s capital litigation unit, spoke in favor of the bill.
“Idaho is currently unable to follow the rule of law in acquiring compliance with lawful criminal judgements in death penalty cases,” Anderson said.
He said there is effectively an execution moratorium in Idaho.
“Drug companies refuse to sell drugs, others that may have the drugs besides the drug companies, refuse to sell them,” Anderson said. “States that also use lethal injection refuse to share because then they’ll be put in Idaho’s position and have to find some supplier for the drugs.”
The bill allows the use of the firing squad when lethal injection is not available. It does not outline how many guns or what type of guns would be used in an execution. That responsibility would be left to the IDOC director, who is hired by the Board of Correction. Board of Correction members are appointed by the governor.
Only one person testified in opposition to the bill: Rev. Hillary Taylor, executive director of the South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. South Carolina recently reinstated the use of the firing squad.
Taylor outlined the ongoing litigation South Carolina faced and policies it had to implement when it brought the firing squad back.
“It’s not like you can take someone convicted of capital crimes out back and shoot them quick and easy like you could in the wild West,” she said. “In South Carolina, it took nine months, dozens of construction workers and $53,000 worth of materials to make a firing squad facility. My state wasted the average teacher’s salary to create a facility it cannot even use yet and may never be able to use at all.”
In debate, Cannon argued that this was a discussion that deserved more than a 30-minute debate.
“If the argument is, ‘if Idaho is going to comply with the rule of law we need to do this,’ I think it’s valid to point out that we can’t comply with the rule of law by doing this except by passing a new law,” Cannon said. “We also could comply with the rule of law by passing or repealing other laws that aren’t options before the committee today.”
The bill must still go to the full House and Senate for approval before becoming law.
Ruth Brown | Producer
Ruth Brown grew up in South Dakota and her first job out of college was covering the South Dakota Legislature. She’s since moved on to Idaho lawmakers. Brown spent 10 years working in print journalism, including newspapers such as the Idaho Statesman and Idaho Press, where she’s covered everything from the correctional system to health care issues. She joined Idaho Reports in 2021 and looks forward to telling stories about how state policy can impact the lives of regular Idahoans.
