Idaho Designates Firing Squad as Preferred Execution Method

The death penalty has been a long debated topic due to ethical and judicial concerns. While there have been many execution methods throughout the centuries - such as hanging, beheading, and the electric chair - lethal injection had been deemed the most humane and common form since the last 20th century.

But that doesn't mean other execution methods aren't still used. Such as the firing squad. In fact, a man requested execution by firing squad just last week in South Carolina.

Soon after this news, Idaho became the first state to designate the firing squad as the preferred method of execution.

South Carolina Man Executed By Firing Squad

Brad Sigmon, 67, was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend's parents with a baseball bat in 2001. He admitted to killing 59 year old, Gladys Larke and 62 year old Davide Larke after they evicted him from their trailer. Then, he tried to kidnap his ex-girlfriend, Rebecca Armstrong, and shot her when she jumped out of his moving car. He was sentenced to death in 2002.

Last Friday, Sigmon was strapped to a chair, blindfolded, with a target on his chest. He was shot by three volunteer prison employees at 6:05pm inside Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina.

The prison employees were armed with rifles and fired bullets into Sigmon's heart from 15 feet away. They all fired at the same time through openings in the wall. Witnesses were seated in a separate room armed with bullet-resistant glass, unable to see the executioners. The witnesses included: three of the Larke's family memebers, a representative from the prosecuting solicitor's office, a representative from the Greenville County Sheriff's Office, Sigmon's attorney, Sigmon's spiritual advisor, and three members of the media. He was pronounced dead almost three minutes after being shot.

Despite Sigmon's attorneys pleading to change his death sentence to life in prison, South Carolina governor and attorney general signed off on the execution. Sigmon was allegedly a model prisoner who was suffering from severe mental illness during the time of the murders.

According to Sigmon's representative, he choose firing squad over fears of the electric chair and lethal injection.

For Sigmon's last meal, he requested four pieces of fried chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes with gravy, biscuits, cheesecake and sweet tea. According to his attorney, he originally requested three buckets of KFC fried chicken to feed the other men locked up with him, but his request was denied.

South Carolina recently resumed carrying out executions after a long pause. The state ended its 13-year halt in administering the death penalty, marking a significant shift in its approach to capital punishment.

South Carolina is among a small group of states that allow the use of firing squads in certain circumstances. Historically, firing squads have been used very rarely in the U.S. since the death penalty was reinstated.

The last execution by firing squad occurred in Utah, which was Ronnie Gardner in 2010.

Preferred Execution in Idaho

Brad Little, Governor of Idaho, signed a bill on Wednesday to make the state the only in the U.S. to designate the firing squad as preferred execution method beginning next year. Most Republican lawmakers in the state supported this change. The law also keeps lethal injection as a backup method if firing squad can't be used for some reason.

Idaho currently has nine prisoners on death row, but hasn't carried out an execution in over 12 years. In 2024, the state tried to execute one of the longest serving death row inmates in the country, Thomas Eugene Creech by lethal injection. However, the medical team couldn't find a vein to inject the lethal drugs, even after trying for about an hour.

This newly preferred execution method could affect Idaho's current death row inmates, as well as Bryan Kohberger, who is the suspect in the University of Idaho college murders.

Prosecuters will seek the death penalty for Kohberger if convicted in his trail later this year. He is facing four first-degree murder charges and one for felony burglary.

What States Allow the Firing Squad?

While Idaho is the first to make the firing squad it's primary method, there are a total of five states that have legalized it. Along with the state of Idaho, South Carolina, Utah, Oklahoma, and Mississippi also have legalized the firing squad.