Firing squad to be used as primary death penalty punishment after inmate survived lethal injection despite 8 attempts

Americans on death row could be brutally murdered by a firing squad with no alternative under the newly proposed bill.

Lawmakers are pushing to prioritize a violent death penalty law after one inmate survived eight lethal injection attempts.

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Idaho State Representative Bruce Skoog introduced the bill Tuesday to strengthen existing legislation that allows firing squads when lethal injections are not available.

Under his proposal, prison officials would choose the firing squad as a main option rather than just a last-ditch effort.

The bill came eleven months after Thomas Creech, a 73-year-old serial killer, underwent eight attempted injections but came out alive.

The executioners were unable to find a vein to inject the vein, and they returned the criminal, who confessed to committing 42 murders, to prison, where he awaits his fate.

Now, lawyers representing the killer are allowed to fight for life in prison one last time thanks to the botched injection, and the sentence has been suspended.

In a meeting with lawmakers, Skaug, a Republican, joined Sen. Doug Ricks to introduce the bill.

He said the firing squad was a more humane method of execution, and said it had less economic impact on the state.

“This is how we do justice,” Skoog told state lawmakers Tuesday.

“In some cases, the jury or judges have already decided that this is an appropriate case for the death penalty for some people.

“So our job is to make sure it's implemented in the most efficient way.”

Four other states have a firing squad as a backup method of execution – Mississippi, Oklahoma, Utah and South Carolina.

However, Idaho will be the only state in the country to prioritize shooting fatalities.

The last prisoner to be shot to death was Ronnie Gardner in Utah in 2010.

Gardner killed a man while trying to escape from a Utah courthouse in 1985, and chose to die by shooting him to death.

In executions by firing squad, prisoners are typically tied to a chair with leather straps and placed in front of a cloth wall, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

A cap is placed over the inmate's head, and bags are placed around the chair to collect his blood. A white cloth is placed over their hearts as a target for the executioners.

Five gunmen will stand in a fence set up about 20 feet away, aiming their .30-caliber rifle loaded with a single shot.

After a prisoner is shot, they will likely die from blood loss. Once enough blood is drained from their brain, they will lose consciousness.

If their hearts weren't hit by bullets, killing could be a long process.

The firing squad bill unanimously went to press and is expected to come before committee sometime next week.