Idaho GOP lawmaker who wants to bring back firing squads says it's a 'more humane' option than lethal injection

• A new Idaho bill would bring back firing squads, a rarely seen method of execution.
• The state has been struggling to get the drugs needed to carry out executions by lethal injection.

A new Idaho bill would bring back the extremely rare execution method of firing squads — and a GOP lawmaker backing the proposed legislation called it a "more humane" option than lethal injection.

The bill was introduced this month after Idaho put off the execution of a death row inmate and convicted murderer because it couldn't obtain the necessary lethal injection chemicals.

"The way it stands now, they may never get those materials for the lethal injections," the bill's sponsor, Republican Rep. Bruce Skaug, told the House Ways and Means Committee last week, according to the Associated Press.

Skaug added, "This is a rule of law issue: Our criminal system should work and our penalty should be exacted."

In Idaho, the only legal form of execution currently is by lethal injection. Under the newly proposed bill, execution would be carried out by a firing squad if it is determined that the lethal injection method is "unavailable."

As Skaug advocated to bring back firing squads in Idaho, he said that he believed it to be a "more humane" execution method.

"There can be about 10 seconds of extreme pain before death at times, but I find it to be, in my personal view, more humane than lethal injection," Skaug said, according to the AP.

In recent years, states across the US have faced a shortage of drugs used in lethal injections, causing them to adopt new lethal injection methods or other alternative execution methods, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

The death penalty is legal in 27 states throughout the US, and just four states — Mississippi, Oklahoma, Utah, and South Carolina — allow firing squads. However, the law in South Carolina is currently on hold after it was challenged.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, all states and the federal government use lethal injection as their primary method of execution where it is legal. Lethal injection also has the highest rate of botched executions, according to experts.

Experts have warned that botched lethal injection executions, which can cause severe pain, could violate the 8th Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment, as Insider has previously reported.

Last year, two Oklahoma death row inmates sought death by firing squad over lethal injection. Their attorney said at the time, "While it may be gruesome to look at, we all agree it will be quicker."

Idaho legalized firing squads in 1982, but later banned the method

Execution by firing squad was legalized in Idaho in 1982, but it was banned in 2009, and the state never used its firing squad during that time. Lethal injection was used in 1994 for the sole execution carried out between 1982 and 2009, according to the Idaho Capital Sun.

Late last year, state officials in Idaho were forced to cancel the scheduled execution of convicted double-murderer Gerald Pizzuto Jr., who is terminally ill, because they could not get the drugs needed for lethal injection.

Pizzuto, 66, was served with a new death warrant last week scheduling his execution for March 23 — and the state is still working to obtain the lethal injection chemicals.

The Idaho Department of Correction is "not in possession of the chemicals necessary to carry out an execution by lethal injection," the department said in a February 24 press release, explaining, "Efforts to lawfully source chemicals are ongoing."

Pizzuto is one of eight inmates currently on death row in Idaho.