Reference · Voices
FS-2026-ID-0001
In their
own words.
Statements from every side of the chamber wall — the men who face the rifles, the officers asked to pull the triggers, the legislators who wrote the law, and the advisors who stand between them.
"Death is not a punishment, it is a mercy the state has no right to grant itself."
Speaker
Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood
Role
Spiritual advisor (12 executions)
Source · 2026
Author's note, The Lie of the Clean Kill
"I would rather stand in front of a rifle than lie down for another needle."
Speaker
Brad Sigmon
Role
Executed by firing squad, South Carolina
Source · March 7, 2025
Written statement of election
"One shooter missed. The autopsy shows he missed the heart. I do not know how long he was awake."
Speaker
Chiara Eisner
Role
Reporter
Source · May 8, 2025
NPR, on the execution of Mikal Mahdi
"We are not choosing a new method. We are choosing to be honest about what we have always been doing."
Speaker
Rep. Bruce Skaug (R-Nampa)
Role
HB 37 co-sponsor
Source · Feb 18, 2025
Idaho House floor
"The bullet does not solve the moral problem. It only relieves the pharmacist of it."
Speaker
Sen. Melissa Wintrow (D-Boise)
Role
HB 37 opponent
Source · Mar 5, 2025
Idaho Senate floor
"I have watched twelve people die. I have never watched a clean one."
Speaker
Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood
Role
Spiritual advisor
Source · Oct 2025
Public statement after Anthony Boyd
"You do not forget the sound of a rifle inside a concrete room."
Speaker
Anonymous former SCDC officer
Role
South Carolina execution team
Source · 2025
Interview, quoted with permission
"They want me to pull the trigger and forget I did it. That is the whole design."
Speaker
Anonymous POST-certified officer
Role
Declined to volunteer
Source · 2026
Idaho Statesman, June 10, 2026
"The state built a room that costs more than my house and asked me to work in it for free."
Speaker
Anonymous corrections contractor
Role
Declined to bid on F-Block retrofit
Source · 2025
Reported in Idaho Press, June 2026
"I want the record to show he was awake. The record will show he was awake."
Speaker
Attorney for Mikal Mahdi
Role
Post-execution statement
Source · May 2025
DPIC, May 13, 2025
"The whole point of a firing squad is that no one shooter has to know."
Speaker
Deborah Denno
Role
Professor, Fordham Law
Source · 2025
Interview, The Marshall Project
"I was in the room when Kenneth Smith fought for four minutes against a mask he could not take off."
Speaker
Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood
Role
Spiritual advisor
Source · Jan 25, 2024
Public statement, Alabama nitrogen execution
"The rifle is the last honest thing left in this business, and that is not a compliment."
Speaker
Robert Dunham
Role
Death Penalty Policy Project
Source · 2025
Interview, The Guardian
"I signed the bill because I trust the men and women of the Department of Correction to do this work with dignity."
Speaker
Gov. Brad Little
Role
Governor of Idaho
Source · Mar 12, 2025
Signing statement, HB 37
"Dignity is not a property of the executioner. It is a property the state pretends the condemned still has."
Speaker
Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood
Role
Author response to Governor Little
Source · Mar 13, 2025
The Lie of the Clean Kill, Ch. 3
"Eight times. Eight punctures. And then they closed the curtain and walked me back."
Speaker
Thomas Eugene Creech
Role
Survivor of failed 2024 execution
Source · March 2024
Sworn declaration, Idaho federal district court