Utah is the only state to have used firing squads in the past 50 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Idaho’s neighboring state executed Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010 by firing squad. Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Carolina also permit use of the firing squad as an alternative to lethal injection.

I see this bill as being less problematic with appeals in the courts,” said Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, who proposed the change in law.

Representative Skaug presented legislation in the judiciary committee on Tuesday that would turn the firing squad into Idaho's primary form of execution.The fir