Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Religion News
Idaho’s Firing Squad $1.2 Million Lie is Seducing a Nation

Idaho’s Firing Squad $1.2 Million Lie is Seducing a Nation

Last updated on: October 23, 2026 at 12:20 am by Jeff Hood

0 Comments

Idaho’s Firing Squad $1.2 Million Lie is Seducing a Nation 2026-10-23T00:20:16-06:00 Jeff Hood

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Idaho's Firing Squad

Idaho’s Firing Squad

Idaho’s Firing Squad $1.2 Million Lie is Seducing a Nation

Idaho built a room to shoot people in. That’s right. Shoot. It cost more than $1.2 million. The state bought five rifles for more than $24,000. The director signed off on the protocol. On July 1, the firing squad became Idaho’s primary method of execution. Since then, Idaho has not shot anyone. Not a single person.

The firing squad is the lie states tell themselves when the other lies stop working. It arrives every time the needle fails. It promises speed. It promises certainty. It promises mercy. It promises a clean kill. Nobody ever speaks the obvious…the clean kill does not exist.

Three volunteers from Idaho law enforcement. Five AR-style rifles. One round each. About ten yards between the muzzle and a man strapped to a chair with a target fixed over his heart. A medical team leader watching a heart monitor for up to two minutes. And if the heart keeps beating, a second volley. That’s what Idaho has put together.

But wait. A second volley? Idaho wrote the failure of the firing squad into its own protocol. A state that plans to shoot a man twice does not believe its own promise that the method offers certainty.

South Carolina tested the promise. In April 2025, three shooters fired at Mikal Mahdi from fifteen feet. The autopsy showed two wounds, not three, that the bullets went low, that they tore through his liver, that his heart kept beating. Witnesses heard him scream. The pathologist put his conscious suffering at thirty to sixty seconds. Idaho’s shooters will stand twice as far from the chair.

The needle has already failed. In February 2024, the state strapped Thomas Creech to a gurney. Eight attempts to find a vein. The execution was called off. Creech went back to his cell alive. Idaho learned nothing from that morning except that it needed a different weapon.

That is the whole logic of the firing squad. When one method fails, find something more explosive. Call it reliable. Call it humane. Then, strap a man down and find out.

I have accompanied fourteen people to their executions. I have watched states promise a painless death and deliver the opposite. The promise is always the same. The body always answers truthfully.

And thanks in part to Idaho, the gun is traveling. Utah, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Mississippi have the firing squad on the books. Indiana fell short of adding it in January. The military plans to shoot Nidal Hasan at Fort Hood on December 3. President Trump approved it. Surely, the families that are brutalized by the crimes of condemned persons deserve more than to be made a prop for an experiment with guns.

Every government that wants a rifle can now point to Boise. The chamber is built. The rifles are ready. The protocol is signed. Idaho made shooting prisoners respectable…even desirable…without shooting anyone.

The firing squad does not fix the death penalty. It strips the costume off. There is no drug to blame. No vein to miss. Three people aim at a heart and pull a trigger. If they hit it, the state calls that mercy. If they miss, the state waits up to two minutes and tries again. Then, I guess they let the guy bleed out.

I have seen what happens when the state’s promises meet a human body. New protocols can’t make killing clean. Targets can’t make bullets land with precision. No signature can guarantee that a human being will die the way the government says he will. Humans don’t die so predictably.

Idaho has not fired the first shot. Look around. The hell is already spreading.

Bio: Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood is a spiritual advisor who has accompanied fourteen people through their executions. He founded the Execution Intervention Project and is the author of The Lie of the Clean Kill: Idaho, the Firing Squad, and the Allure of the Bullet.

Catholic

Politics and Religion

About The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood

The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood is a Catholic priest (Old Catholic), theologian, and nationally recognized activist based in North Little Rock, Arkansas. A spiritual advisor to death row inmates across the country, Dr. Hood has accompanied more people to their executions than any other advisor in the U.S., including the first-ever nitrogen hypoxia execution in 2024. His work sits at the intersection of justice, radical compassion, and public theology. Dr. Hood holds advanced degrees from Auburn, Emory, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, University of Alabama, Creighton, and Brite Divinity School, among others. He also earned a PhD in metaphysical theology and founded The New Theology School, where he serves as Dean and Professor of Prophetic Theology. Author of over 100 books—including the award-winning The Courage to Be Queer—Dr. Hood’s writings and activism have been featured in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, NPR, CNN, and more. A frequent collaborator with men on death row, he sees theology as a shared, liberative act. Dr. Hood has served on the leadership teams of organizations like the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. His activism has earned multiple awards, including recognition from PFLAG and the Next Generation Action Network. On July 7, 2016, Dr. Hood led the Dallas protest against police brutality that ended in tragedy. His actions that night saved lives, and his story is now archived in the Dallas Public Library. A father of five, husband to Emily, and friend to the incarcerated, Dr. Hood rejects institutionalism in favor of a theology rooted in people, presence, and prophetic witness. You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

October 22, 2026

Governor Newsom: Don't Hand Off California's Death Row

Next Post

October 24, 2026 Meaninglessness: On Ecclesiastes 1:2–11

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"'God’s Sheep on the Sidewalk' is immensely thought-provoking and conscience-stirring. Thanks. "The people out there ..."

Dr.Cajetan Coelho

God’s Sheep: The Ones Who Sleep ..."

"Greetings, Jeff, and bless you for your relentlessly regular fierce posts and your profound commitments ..."

DCF

Between: On the Person and Character ..."

"God as the Between, thoughts:As a child we were taught, in the blue or green ..."

madalyn baumstark

Between: On the Person and Character ..."

"Sometimes we make it harder than it is. Not saying things don't bring us to ..."

Patrick Dennis

Get Behind Me, Satan: A Death ..."

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Danny & Jeff fresh writings latest poetics north texas fellowship of reconciliation Sermon theology from death row Thoughts Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 July 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 May 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who were Esther's adversaries in the Persian court?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Geshem and Tobiah Sanballat and Tobiah Haman and his family Sanherib and Nabonidus