The vocabulary
of the chamber.

POST

Peace Officer Standards and Training. Idaho's law-enforcement certification body. Every firing squad shooter must hold three years of POST certification with a clean firearms and use-of-force disciplinary record.

F-Block

The maximum-security block within Idaho Maximum Security Institution (IMSI) south of Boise where the state's condemned men are held and where the execution chamber was retrofitted.

IMSI

Idaho Maximum Security Institution. Kuna, Idaho. Houses the state's men's death row and the execution chamber.

Pocatello

Site of the Pocatello Women's Correctional Center, home to the one woman on Idaho's death row.

Blank round

One of the four rifles issued to the firing squad is loaded with a blank cartridge. No shooter knows which weapon they were issued. A ballistic fiction of diffused responsibility.

Cloth square

A white cotton rectangle, approximately three inches square, pinned over the fourth intercostal space of the condemned. The aiming point.

Gun port

A rectangular slot cut in the chamber wall through which shooters fire. Screened until the moment of volley.

Death warrant

A court order signed by a judge authorizing execution within a defined window, typically thirty days. In Idaho a death warrant is issued by the district court where sentence was imposed.

Spiritual advisor

A minister or chaplain permitted in the chamber during execution. Ramirez v. Collier (2022) confirmed the condemned's right to spiritual accompaniment. Idaho protocol permits presence but forbids physical contact during the volley.

Sandbag rest

Stacked bags on which the shooters brace their rifles before firing. Standard shooting-range equipment repurposed for the chamber.

HB 37

House Bill 37 (Idaho, 2025). Made the firing squad Idaho's primary method of execution. Signed March 12, 2025; effective July 1, 2026.

HB 186

House Bill 186 (Idaho, 2023). Authorized the firing squad as a backup method when lethal injection is unavailable.

IDOC

Idaho Department of Correction. Operates IMSI and administers Idaho's execution protocol.

Furman

Furman v. Georgia (1972). Supreme Court decision that struck down existing capital sentencing schemes and produced a de facto national moratorium.

Gregg

Gregg v. Georgia (1976). Reinstated capital punishment under new guided-discretion statutes.

Wilkerson

Wilkerson v. Utah (1879). The Supreme Court decision holding the firing squad constitutional under the Eighth Amendment.

Pentobarbital

The barbiturate most states relied on for lethal injection after European manufacturers refused to supply the older three-drug protocols. Now largely unavailable to corrections departments.

Nitrogen hypoxia

Execution by forced inhalation of pure nitrogen, causing oxygen deprivation. First used on Kenneth Smith in Alabama, January 25, 2024.

Botched execution

A death penalty carried out in a manner that deviates substantially from protocol or results in observable suffering. The DPIC tracks these under a formal definition.

Ada County Coroner

The jurisdiction whose coroner performs the pronouncement of death and autopsy for executions carried out at IMSI.

Death watch

The 24 to 72 hours preceding an execution during which the condemned is moved to a holding cell adjacent to the chamber and monitored continuously.

Volunteer

A prisoner who waives further appeals and consents to execution. Gary Gilmore (1977) is the paradigmatic case. Also used to describe corrections staff who agree to serve on execution teams.

Anonymous shooter

Idaho's confidentiality clause (IDAPA 06.01.01.108.04) prohibits disclosure of any identifying information about shooters other than certain named administrative personnel.

Alternate

Two additional POST-certified officers who train and qualify but do not fire unless a primary shooter is disqualified in the final hours.

Team leader

The one member of the shooting team who loads the rifles and is therefore the only person who knows which weapon received the blank.

IV team

The medical personnel — typically not licensed physicians — tasked with establishing the intravenous line under lethal injection. In the Creech attempt they were unable to seat a viable line after eight punctures.

Vein map

The pre-execution ultrasound survey attempting to locate usable venous access. Introduced by IDOC after the Creech failure.

Cloth mask / hood

The black cotton hood optionally placed over the head of the condemned before the volley. May be declined.

Fourth intercostal

The anatomical space between the fourth and fifth ribs — the aiming reference for the cloth square, chosen for its proximity to the heart.

Ramirez v. Collier

2022 Supreme Court decision guaranteeing the condemned's right to have a spiritual advisor present in the execution chamber.

Baze v. Rees

2008 Supreme Court decision upholding Kentucky's three-drug lethal injection protocol.

Glossip v. Gross

2015 Supreme Court decision upholding midazolam-based lethal injection over challenges that it did not reliably render the condemned unconscious.

Retroactivity clause

The provision of HB 37 stating that the primary-method designation applies to every prisoner then on Idaho's death row, regardless of when their sentence was imposed.

Execution Intervention Project

The organization founded by Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood to provide legal, spiritual, and material support to those facing execution.