Idaho Senate takes aim at firing squad option


Associated Press - March 23, 2009

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - The Idaho Senate voted to take the firing squad
off the law books as an alternative method of execution.

The bill passed 33-2 Monday. It's already cleared the House and now
goes to Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter for signature.

According to the Idaho State Historical Society, the state has never
executed someone by firing squad.

But it remained a possibility, as a backup should a Department of
Correction director decide lethal injection was impractical.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976,
two people in the United States have died by firing squad, both in
Utah: Gary Gilmore, made famous in a book by Norman Mailer, in 1977
and John Albert Taylor in 1996.

But Utah did away with firing squads in 2004.

"We're the only state left with it," said Sen. Denton Darrington, a
Declo Republican, before the Senate vote.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

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