Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed his name in Wednesday’s bill, making Idaho the only state in the United States with a shooting squad designated as a priority method of execution for the death penalty that begins next year.
The governor’s actions take place less than a week after South Carolina’s 67-year-old Brad Sigmon was executed by the fire forces in 2001 for killing the parents of his ex-girlfriend with a baseball bat.
Sigmon was declared dead nearly three minutes after being shot last Friday by three volunteer prison employees. This is the first method used in the US in 15 years.
Idaho politicians reported that Idaho has nine death row inmates, but the death penalty has not been put in the state for decades.
Idaho Beef launches a shooting squad as the Brian Coberger Trial approaches
Idaho Gov. Brad Little was signed Wednesday and died after firing the state’s preferred execution method to the squad. (Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service by Getty Images)
Last year, the state failed to run Thomas Eugene Creech. One of the longest-serving death row inmates in the US healthcare worker who manages lethal injections failed to establish an IV line despite attempting about an hour.
The bill’s tracking sheet shows that more than two-thirds of Republican-controlled Congress support the measure.
Fox News Digital contacted Little’s office to comment on the issue.
Idaho Serial Killer Survives Fatal Injection Attempts and Promotes a New Push for the Shooting Squad
Running chamber of Idaho’s largest security agency in Boise. (AP Photo/Jesse L. Bonner, File)
In 2023, he approved little laws that added execution by firing squads as a state backup execution method, but he said his preferred method was by fatal injection.
Idaho has become the country’s fifth state to legalize practices, after Utah, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Mississippi.
Now, Bill’s sponsor, Rep. Bruce Scowgue, who had previously promoted a law that restored the shooting squad as a backup option for fatal injections, claimed that last year’s fatal injections underscored the issue that way.
The move to revive Idaho’s firing squad “makes sense” is the “fastest, most reliable” death penalty option, experts say
Brian Coberger on the right will be escorted to court to appear at a hearing at Rata County District Court in Moscow, Idaho on September 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
The newly legalized execution method could affect the state’s current eight death row inmates, with the University of Idaho murder suspected by Brian Coberger.
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Little signed the bill as prosecutors said they wanted Coberger’s death penalty if convicted. His trial is scheduled for later this year, and he faces four counts of first-degree murder and another charge of felony robbery.
The judge went on his behalf to not guilty of his arrest.
Michael Ruiz and Stepheny Price of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
Greg Wehner is a news reporter for Fox News Digital.
Story tips and ideas can be sent to greg.wehner @fox.com and Twitter @gregwehner.
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