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A Local Legal Expert In Idaho Weighs In On The Possibility Of A Firing Squad As Punishment

We recently heard that a lawmaker in Idaho was attempting to have execution by firing squad reinstated due to the issues with aquiring the chemicals needed to carry out death by lethal injection.

In this episode, we hear from a legal scholar from Gonzaga University who gives their opinion about the possiblity of the firing squad coming back to Idaho and what that would look like if it did.

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source:

Local professor shares doubts over firing squads in Idaho | krem.com

Duration:: 12m
Broadcast on:: 03 Jan 2025
Audio Format:: other

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And so without a means to execute somebody by lethal injection, these states with the death penalty on the books, they're looking for other means to go about their business. Now personally, as I've said plenty of times before, I'm not really a big fan of the death penalty in general, but if it's going to be on the books, then there has to be a way for the state to carry it out. And if these companies don't want to play ball and give them the proper chemicals, what are they supposed to do? The residents of the state in question, they have the law on the books for a reason, and obviously enough people in the state believe in the death penalty that it has remained on the books. So if you're going to have the death penalty on the books, then you have to have a way to carry out that sentence. You can't just have people languishing on death row for 30 or 40 years. What's the point in that? Just give them a life sentence and be done with it. So today we're going to dig into that issue a little bit deeper and we're going to hear from a professor from Gonzaga who shares doubts about the possibility of bringing back execution by firing squad. So let's dive into this article from KREM2 and let's see what's going on. Headline Gonzaga professor shares doubts over possible decision to bring firing squads back to Idaho death row. Idaho lawmakers are considering the move since the state has been unable to get the drugs needed for lethal injections. This article was authored by Kyle Simchuck. Last December, the state of Idaho had no choice but to call off the execution of Gerald Pazuto who was sentenced to death for the 1985 murders of a woman and their nephew during a robbery at a remote cabin near McCall. The problem was that the Department of Corrections was unable to get a hold of the lethal injection drugs they needed. It's a problem that persists today. And considering there's an issue getting these drugs, you would think that in a capitalistic society like ours, somebody would slide in here and start providing these drugs for the states so that they can go ahead with these executions. But if no drugs are available, then there has to be a remedy for the state. What that remedy is, well, I have no idea. As I've said previously, I'm not a fan of the death penalty by firing squad lethal injection or anything else. The companies that do make this drug are European countries and they're no longer willing to sell it to the United States as they have been for nearly ten years now, visiting assistant professor at Gonzaga. John Dolan Taylor said, Taylor who has worked on 177 death penalty cases across the country. She says another problem states face with lethal injections is that many doctors aren't willing to participate. Well, considering doctors take the Hippocratic oath, I could see how doctors would have a problem being involved in something like this. Now on the flip side of that, shouldn't the state have doctors already that are on the books or on the roster that are prepared to go through with all of this if the state has the death penalty on the books? I mean, shouldn't there be a doctor that's appointed to the prisons that are undertaking these executions and they know going into that role that their job is going to be to administer this final death sentence at some point for people on death row? That should all be made clear to somebody who's taking this job. I really don't understand that part. How is it that you can't find a doctor to do something like this? I can understand a shortage of supplies and material to get the job done, but certainly not a shortage of expertise. Considering in the state of Idaho, you know that this is on the books and if you're a doctor and you take a job at one of these facilities, then you should just understand right away that at some point you're going to have to be involved. If you're willing to have to be involved in one of these state run executions, and if that's not something you're willing to do, then you shouldn't take the job at one of these facilities. And I'm sure that the government can find a pool of doctors that are willing to step up and be participants when something like this needs to occur. Some of the doctors are saying, "Hey, it's already a problem because our Hippocratic oath says we can't do any harm," Taylor said. This is why the firing squads become that other backup method because it doesn't require a medical professional to administer that. And as gruesome as that seems, they're not wrong. You see, when the state and the inhabitants of the state decide that the death penalty is a proper punishment for somebody who commits a capital crime, then there has to be a way for that sentence to be carried out. And if it can't be carried out because of doctors not wanting to participate or that they can't get the proper chemical compounds that are needed for the lethal injections, then the state has to have a remedy to deal with the situation. And it sounds gruesome and brutal, of course, but one of the most cost-effective ways to do that would be to have a firing squad right? How much do a couple of bullets cost? Not very much in the grand scheme of things. Idaho banned firing squads more than a decade ago, but now some lawmakers want to bring them back as an alternative method for execution when lethal injection drugs are not available. And honestly, we should just do away with the death penalty as a whole, and we should just build facilities that are made for people like this. If you're going to end up on death row, well, there should be a whole-ass facility where people on death row go to rot away and people that are in this facility, they shouldn't have any of the freedoms that other convicts might have. Maybe no TV, you know, whatever it is, but it should be a very, very restrictive environment. If you're going to get the death penalty and then that's removed, well, I think that your time behind bars should be pretty damn restrictive. Now, I don't believe that's the case for all inmates, obviously, but if we're going to do away with the death penalty, then that time behind bars for the people who are committing the most gruesome crimes amongst us, well, that has to be time that they feel. That can't be time that they're flying through or floating through. New Year, New Year has never been easier with great deals at Family Dollar. Save even more when you shop with smart coupons. Family Dollar, helping you do more. 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So for me, if you get the debt sentence, you should end up in a facility like Flowmax. That's where the worst of the worst go for federal crimes, so there should be facilities like that in each state for the worst of the worst. And if you're accused of a crime, and then you're convicted of a capital crime, then instead of getting that death penalty, you should just get shipped off to one of these facilities where you're basically just going to sit there in a cell forever and think about what you did. Because a lot of times now, even when people are on death row, they have basically celebrity status. They're getting all kinds of emails and letters from fans and admirers, while the families, well, they're never going to have their family member back, right? So while I'm not a fan of the death penalty, that doesn't mean I don't want to see people suffer the consequences. Because if you're going to do something like this, besides throwing your ass in a volcano, or strapping your ass to a rocket on the outside, by the way, and launching you in the orbit, I think sitting in a jail cell and rotting away with hardly any contact from the outside would be one of the worst punishments you could possibly have. I mean, just look at some of the stories you hear about Flowmax, guys like gas pipe Casso, Ramsey Youssef, these guys are never talking to anybody, they're never going to see the light of day again, and a lot of them aren't even in there for murder. So if you're going to murder four people, then I think that we should put the resources in new facilities to house these people who would have been put to death. "A firing squad is made up of individuals from the Department of Corrections who would have volunteered to participate in that death process," Taylor said. Utah was the last state to execute a person using a firing squad, which is also an option in Mississippi, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. Yeah, they don't mess around in the South, right? They're like, "Show up, we're going to strap you to a tree and then shoot you at a machine gun." But Taylor believes it poses a constitutional problem. Under the Eighth Amendment, we have these rules about this unnecessary, unwanted, this freakish pain, and so if we cannot establish this dying with dignity, that is also part of the Eighth Amendment, and meet these benchmarks around pain, then we have not only failed the individual on the other side of the firing squad, but we've also failed ourselves because we agree it on this constitution, and we can't start making discounts for the rights of people just for our own personal feelings," Taylor said, and I agree 1 million percent about that. I'm adamant that the people I dislike the most and the people that I think are the guiltiest should have the same rights as anybody else, because that's the way our system's set up, and that's the only way our system will succeed, because as of right now, the whole entire justice system is broken, and don't even get me started on the Department of Corrections. Eight people are currently on death row in Idaho, and with the recent murder of four University of Idaho students, the topic is now top of mind for many people in the state, including lawmakers. So that's an interesting take on the whole bringing back the firing squad, and it's always nice to hear from these professors, obviously, especially the ones that deal in these issues, and the more perspective and the more context we get, the better. All right, folks, that's going to do it for this one. All of the information that goes with the episode can be found in the description box. Spice up here!