Constitutional debates covering death penalty laws that surround the minds of many Americans have been buzzing throughout the state of Idaho.
Due to the recent extreme changes in the way the punishment of death sentence prisoners in states such as Alabama, Idaho and Florida, the matter becomes more and more pressing as the years go by.
Alongside Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah, the firing squad is now legalized as a way of execution in the state of Idaho. The majority of these states legalized this execution method because it was challenging to get the drugs required to carry out death by lethal injection.
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor debates that firing squad is a more humane way of execution.
People on this side of the argument debate that the bullets hitting the heart cause immediate unconsciousness, therefore causing a less painful and faster death. After pharmaceutical companies barred the use of their drugs, states are scrambling for alternatives to lethal injection.
On the other hand, many debate that firing squad, while it may be less painful, is more traumatizing to those watching, including their family. It also riddles the bodies and could mess up the inmate’s face if done correctly.
Another change in the death penalty laws in Idaho is the new law that states that the execution of any sexual offender whose victim was twelve or under when the crime was committed is required.
“If you raped someone, you deserve to die, I think that’s fair,” sophomore Maddie Addleman said.
Nevertheless, the states need to find alternative routes to minimize the wait time between the holding of prisoners and their execution.
“I feel like that’s worse than anything, sitting in a room alone for 23 hours every day,” Isaac Vollink, a sophomore at LHS, said.
Changes in other states to the death penalty laws have been rapidly occurring as well. Alabama put an inmate to death in a gas chamber within the past month. A mask forced the inmate to inhale pure nitrogen hypoxia gas to execute Kenneth Smith, earlier accused of murdering a woman in 1988. He was killed on Jan. 25.
This was the first execution in the world ever to use this method, regardless of Arizona, California, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Wyoming all having lethal gas if injection can not be performed for any particular reason.
However, being the first of its kind, controversy surrounds this entire execution. States are now forced to reconsider their death penalty laws and reassess what is more suitable for the citizens at this point.
Idaho’s governor, Brad Little, signed a bill permitting the legalization of death by firing squad. This bill went into effect July 1, 2023. Although, Idaho has not executed any inmate since July 2012, which was performed by lethal injection. Anticipation for the possible use of the firing squad may be the primary motive for the governor to sign this bill.
As of Jan. 31, 37 prisoners are on death row in America and have been scheduled over the next four years. But with delays in lethal injections, prolonging the execution is not out of the question for the Justice Department.
“I feel like people are on death row for too long, and it is almost an easy way out of their consequence,” Addleman said.
On average, over a decade is spent waiting for proper drugs or legality to straighten out. More than half of all prisoners currently sentenced to death in the U.S. have waited more than eighteen years. One man even spent 36 years until his execution at the age of 72.
Laws with the death penalty in the country have been adjusted endlessly. Whether it was the Roper v. Simmons case or even Proffitt v. Florida, these death penalty laws will never be perfect, and debate will constantly surround the topic.
