These Are the 9 Idaho Criminals Now Facing Death By Firing Squad

✅ Idaho's last successful death row execution was in 2012

✅ The Idaho Department of Correction has had difficulty obtaining legal injection chemicals

✅ Governor Little signed House Bill 37 on March 12, 2025

The 2025 legislative session is in full swing at the Idaho Statehouse in Boise and Governor Little just signed one of the most intriguing bills into law.

It’s been 13 years since Idaho last executed an inmate on death row. Richard Leavitt spent 27 years on death row after a jury found him guilty of stabbing Danette Jean Elg to death while she was sleeping in her own bed. Evidence also showed that he horrifically mutilated her body afterward. It would be three days before Leavitt called in a tip as “Mike Jenkins” and police discovered her decomposing body.

READ MORE: One of the Worst Prisons in America is in This Small Idaho Town

Leavitt was executed by lethal injection in 2012. According to KTVB, Leavitt’s execution was the first time that media witnesses were allowed to watch the execution process from start to finish, rather than bringing them in after the IVs to administer the drugs were placed. 

Idaho’s Struggle to Execute Inmates on Death Row

Ten years later, the state issued a death warrant for Gerald Pizzuto Jr., who was found guilty of killing two people near McCall in 1985. However, the warrant expired after the Idaho Department of Correction was unable to obtain the chemicals necessary to put Pizzuto to death. 

Pizzuto was sent back to his cell and the Idaho legislature passed a bill making “death by firing squad” legal in Idaho. It went into effect on July 1, 2023. However, it was only and option if the chemicals to carry out lethal injection were unavailable.

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That’s why when IDOC issued the death warrant for Thomas Creech in February 2024, they tried to execute him using lethal injection drugs. However, the execution was called off when the medical team couldn’t get an IV line established after an hour of trying. 

Creech was also sent back to his cell. When they issued another death warrant in November, he was granted a stay. He’s still alive and is the longest serving inmate on Idaho’s death row. 

Death By Firing Squad is Now Idaho’s Primary Form of Execution

That may change soon. Starting July 1, 2026 death by firing squad will be Idaho’s primary form of execution after Governor Brad Little signed House Bill 37 into law. This will give IDOC enough time to complete renovations on Idaho’s execution chamber to accommodate a firing squad. 

The Idaho Capital Sun reports that Idaho is one five states that allow death by firing squad along with Utah, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Mississippi. South Carolina actually executed Brad Sigmon by firing squad on March 7, 2025. He was given the choice of lethal injection, the electric charge or firing squad. 

What Idaho Inmates Could Be Executed by Firing Squad?

Many Idahoans are familiar with Pizzuto and Creech because of Idaho's failed attempts to put them to death. 

We’re also all too familiar with Chad Daybell, who was officially sentenced to death row in 2024. We’ve got a sneaking suspicion that after his wife, Lori’s, recent, nonsensical interview with Keith Morrison on Dateline, there’s probably a great deal of people that would like to see him go first. 

Those three are joined on Death Row by six other inmates. Here’s a look at the entire Death Row inmate roster in Idaho and the crimes that landed them there.