Democrats and liberals are triggered after Idaho passed a bill requiring a firing squad as a method of execution when lethal injection is unavailable.
In a 24-11 vote on Monday, the Idaho State Senate passed a bill which would permit execution by firing squad for death row inmates. The bill will now go to state Republican Gov. Brad Little’s desk for his signature.
As expected, left-leaning personalities on Twitter were losing their minds over the bill, with many blasting Republicans for not valuing the lives of society’s worst individuals.
The @GOP are so pro life they believe death by firing squad is “humane.” https://t.co/PxQNGumUsV
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) March 20, 2023
“The @GOP are so pro life they believe death by firing squad is ‘humane,’” tweeted Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“Mindboggling,” wrote another random user. “So were a bunch of Idaho Republicans gathered one night for a bout of good ol’ drinking, degrading of women and minorities, and looking at child porn when someone said, ‘Hey, you know what I REALLY miss?! EXECUTIONS BY FIRING SQUAD!!! Let’s bring that shit back!’”
While Little is a strong supporter of the death penalty, he has not said whether he will sign the legislation into law. But even if he vetoes the bill, Idaho lawmakers have the numbers to override it.
GOP state Sen. Doug Ricks, who co-sponsored the bill, told his fellow senators on Monday that Idaho’s difficulty in finding lethal injection drugs could continue “indefinitely” and that he believes death by firing squad is “humane.”
“This is a rule of law issue — our criminal system should work and penalties should be exacted,” Ricks said.
Fellow Republican Sen. Dan Foreman, meanwhile, said that firing-squad executions could traumatize the people involved in the executions.
“I’ve seen the aftermath of shootings, and it’s psychologically damaging to anybody who witnesses it,” Foreman said. “The use of the firing squad is, in my opinion, beneath the dignity of the state of Idaho.”
The bill was conceived after the state was unable to execute Gerald Pizzuto Jr. late last year. Pizzuto has spent more than three decades on death row for his part in the 1985 murders of two gold prospectors. He currently has terminal cancer as well as other crippling ailments.
