Idaho Gov. Little to Newsmax: Execution Drugs ‘Almost Impossible’ to Get

Idaho Gov. Brad Little told Newsmax Tuesday that those who oppose capital punishment have made it “almost impossible” to obtain lethal drugs and have contributed to a new law authorizing execution by firing squad in his state.

“The activists have made it to where it’s almost impossible to get some of these pharmaceutical compounds,” Little said during an appearance on Newsmax’s “National Report.” “They’re using that — whether they boycott companies or whatever they may do — to stop capital punishment.”

“It’s not that they prefer one form of capital punishment over another,” he said. “They just don’t believe in the foundational principle that there’s certain evil, heinous crimes that basically, for justice, capital punishment is the necessary way for society to address those evil crimes.”

Idaho became the latest state to turn to older methods of capital punishment amid a nationwide shortage of lethal-injection drugs when Little signed a bill at the end of March legalizing execution by firing squad.

Pharmaceutical companies have increasingly prohibited executioners from using their drugs, maintaining that the compounds were intended to save lives, not take them. Drug scarcity has reportedly already led to the postponement of one Idaho death-row inmate’s execution and the shortage has prompted other states to revive older execution methods in recent years.

“Part of the reason Idaho’s the fastest growing state is that people feel safe here,” Little said. “And we know that capital punishment is a deterrent to crime. It’s the law of the land in the state of Idaho, something I believe about. We vastly prefer lethal injection and this bill is just a back up to what is our preferred method.

“We want justice to be carried out as expeditiously and as dignified as possible, but, without lethal injection, this appears, by all measurements, to be the second choice. But as I said, we prefer lethal injection.”

The Idaho Department of Correction estimates it will cost approximately $750,000 to build or retrofit a death chamber for use by firing squads.

Agency Director Jeff Tewalt has previously said that he would be unwilling to ask his staff to carry out a firing squad execution.

Tewalt and his former co-worker Kevin Kempf were instrumental in procuring the drugs used in the execution of Richard Albert Leavitt in 2012; they secretly flew to Tacoma, Washington, with more than $15,000 in cash to buy them from a pharmacist. The clandestine trip was revealed in court documents after University of Idaho professor Aliza Cover sued under a public records act.

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