(Originally published March 23 on Idaho Reports)
The Idaho House of Representatives approved a supplemental appropriation of $850,000 on Thursday for the Idaho Department of Correction to build a facility to carry out executions by firing squad.
HB 357 passed the House in a 48-19 vote and heads to the Senate. The appropriation bill came after both chambers passed a bill to bring back the firing squad as a legal form of execution, if the chemicals for lethal injection are unavailable.
Idaho currently does not have a facility on its prison campus to execute someone by firing squad, so IDOC will need to construct one. There are currently eight people on Idaho’s death row.
Legislators introduced the proposal for using the firing squad as an alternate method after IDOC had to twice cancel executions because it could not procure the necessary chemicals.