BOISE — The Idaho Department of Corrections completed the retrofitting of a death chamber at a maximum security prison south of Boise by July 1, 2025. The project cost more than $1 million and designated the firing squad as the state's primary method of execution.

Idaho has become the seventh state to include the firing squad among its authorized execution methods. The department purchased a rack of AR-style, .308-caliber, scoped rifles for $24,000 as part of the chamber's preparations. The Idaho Department of Corrections said, "The department will be prepared to carry out an execution order after July 1."

The state's protocol dictates that only the state prisons director and deputy know the identities of the three firing squad shooters. According to the Idaho Department of Corrections, "Procedures were designed to ensure that any execution is conducted in a secure, orderly, and dignified manner."

Idaho has eight inmates currently on death row, one of whom is female. In February 2024, Idaho called off the execution of Thomas Creech after a medical team was unable to establish an intravenous line.

Five states currently authorize the use of firing squads: Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah. Florida and Tennessee have laws allowing firing squads if other methods are found unconstitutional. Four firing squad executions have been carried out in the U.S. since 2010. Two of those four executions resulted in bullets missing the intended target of the left ventricle of the heart. There have been 147 executions of civilian prisoners by firing squad in the U.S. since 1608. Eleven states carried out executions in the previous year.