USA - Idaho. Correction officials considered firing squad.

Correction officials considered firing squad. That's something the state Department of Correction has been exploring, as states continue to struggle to obtain drugs for executions by lethal injection. "We considered asking the Legislature to amend the statute so a firing squad could be used as a means of execution," confirmed department spokesman Jeff Ray. The department went so far as to draft legislation last month, obtained by The Spokesman-Review under the Idaho Public Records Law. "In any case where the director finds it not reasonably possible to carry out the punishment of death by administration of the required lethal substance or substances, the sentence of death may be carried out by firing squad" the proposed law said. It also proposed adding confidentiality protections to Idaho executions and the people who carry them out. Ray said he was not aware of any opposition to the proposed change. The department didn't go forward because "we determined it would cost at least $300,000 to set up the firing squad," he said in an email. Asked if Gov. Butch Otter supported the proposal, Cally Younger, his public records ombudsman and attorney, said, "Our office wasn't involved with drafting it, and as far as I know, this was dropped before it could officially be presented to us, so we never had a chance to take a position on it." Utah is the only state with a firing squad as a possible means of execution, and even Utah officially ended the practice in 2004 for new cases, unless lethal injection is found to be unconstitutional. However, condemned prisoners who requested the firing squad prior to 2004 still could be executed that way if they come up for execution in the future.