BOISE, Idaho — Idaho has had a long history with the death penalty, stretching back to when it was only a territory. Since 1864, the state has put 29 individuals to death.
- Idaho News 6 spoke to Senator Rick Just, an Idaho author and a State Senator, about the history of the death penalty in Idaho.
- New evolutions are still coming for the punishment, as Idaho passed a law instituting a firing squad as a means of execution.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
The failed execution of Thomas Creech is just another chapter to Idaho's long history with the death penalty.
To learn more about the past, I came here to the Idaho State Capitol to sit down with Idaho author and first-term state senator Rick Just.
"During the years between 1863 and 1890 Idaho executed 14 men by hanging," Just told me.
At first, executions were done at the county level and were often public, that was until 1901 when all Idaho executions started taking place in the Old Pen.
Between 1901 and 1957, nine more people were executed according to research from Boise State University.
Then a pause, in part because "The US Supreme Court struck down death penalties, and then states found ways to get around that and here we are back with them in most states now," Just said.
Idaho's next execution was Keith Eugene Wells in 1994, Idaho's first execution by lethal injection.
The death penalty is now rarer than it was a century ago.
"I think part of it is the exonerations that we've seen recently," said Just.
Here in Idaho, we've seen multiple exonerations includingCharles Fain who was on death row for almost 18 years before DNA evidence cleared his name.
But the punishment is still evolving here in the state.
Last year, a new law was put into place that would institute a firing squad here in Idaho as a means for execution if the drugs for lethal injection could not be obtained.
"No, not at all," Just responded after being asked if the firing squad law surprised him. "Idaho is a very conservative state, it's a very law-and-order state and that's reflected in actions such as that."
Senator Just, who voted against the bill last year expects the gem state to use the new method.
"I think we'll see, eventually, a firing squad execution and that will be interesting because it's a perhaps more violent method of execution," Just said.
