Idaho has become the first US state to make the firing squad its primary execution method, but anyone hoping to serve as a volunteer shooter has to meet strict conditions.
Since 1 July 2026, firing squad executions have been the default in Idaho, although lethal injection remains available as a backup method.
The move places Idaho alongside Mississippi, Oklahoma, Utah and South Carolina in allowing executions by firing squad, but it is the only state to make it the primary option.
It also means the state now relies on a roster of volunteer law-enforcement officers rather than outside contractors to carry out executions.
Under Idaho’s execution protocol, volunteers must be certified peace officers, have at least three years of POST certification, and have no recent disciplinary problems involving firearms or use of force.
They must also prove they can shoot accurately enough to hit the required target, and any miss can disqualify them from serving.
In theory, that means a volunteer can be approved to take part in multiple executions, with some reports saying the state could use the same small pool of certified shooters across as many as eight death-row cases.
Still, joining the program is far from straightforward, and officials are unlikely to approve anyone motivated simply by a desire to kill.
Anyone selected would also need to accept a major condition: their identity must remain secret.
According to the Guardian, the identities of the three volunteer shooters are known only to the state prisons director and deputy.
The outlet also reported that one of the three shooters is female.
Idaho’s shift to firing squad came after repeated problems with lethal injection.
The state’s most recent attempt, in February 2024, was halted after the execution team could not locate a usable vein despite making eight attempts on Thomas Creech, the longest-serving inmate on Idaho’s death row.
That experience would not have been painless.
As a result, the state turned to what it considers a more dependable method, though the ethics of it remain heavily disputed.
Idaho currently has eight people under sentence of death, all convicted of murder.
For execution by firing squad, Death Penalty Info states prisoners are bound to a chair with leather straps across his waist and head, with sandbags surrounding them to absorb blood.
A black hood is also placed over the prisoner’s head while a doctor checks the location of the prisoner’s heart with a stethoscope and then pins a circular white cloth target over it as a target for the shooters.
The shooters then stand 20 feet away and each fire a single round.
But the process is not foolproof. As the website states:
“The person shot loses consciousness when shock causes a fall in the supply of blood to the brain. If the shooters miss the heart, by accident or intention, the prisoner bleeds to death slowly.”
That risk has reportedly played out before in South Carolina, where a prisoner was struck by only two bullets and neither one pierced his heart.