Idaho’s death row holds eight people as of March 2026, and the state is in the middle of a significant change in how it carries out executions. A law signed by Governor Brad Little in March 2025 makes the firing squad Idaho’s primary execution method starting July 1, 2026, replacing lethal injection after years of failed drug sourcing and one botched execution attempt. Capital punishment in Idaho applies only to first-degree murder when at least one statutory aggravating factor is proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
Who Is Currently on Death Row
Seven men and one woman are under active death sentences in Idaho. The men are held at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution south of Boise. Robin Row, the only woman, is housed at the Pocatello Women’s Correctional Center. The Idaho Department of Correction publishes a public roster through its Offender Search tool, where anyone can look up an inmate’s status, photo, and sentencing date.
The current inmates, listed by the date each arrived on death row:
- Thomas Creech (January 1983), convicted of beating a fellow inmate to death. Creech has spent more than 43 years on death row, longer than anyone else in Idaho.
- Gerald Pizzuto (May 1986), convicted of beating two people to death in Idaho County.
- Timothy Dunlap (April 1992), convicted of killing a woman during a bank robbery in Caribou County.
- Robin Row (December 1993), convicted of setting a fire that killed her husband, son, and daughter.
- James Hairston (November 1996), convicted of two shooting deaths in Bannock County.
- Azad Abdullah (November 2004), convicted of killing his wife by arson.
- Jonathan Renfro (November 2017), convicted of shooting and killing a police officer in Kootenai County.
- Chad Daybell (June 2024), convicted of three counts of first-degree murder for the killings of his first wife and two children of his second wife.
What Crimes Qualify for a Death Sentence
A first-degree murder conviction alone is not enough. Idaho Code § 19-2515 requires the jury, or the judge if the defendant waives a jury, to find at least one statutory aggravating circumstance beyond a reasonable doubt before a death sentence can even be considered. The defense can then present mitigating evidence, and the jury must unanimously agree that the aggravating factors outweigh the mitigation before imposing death.
Idaho lists eleven aggravating circumstances. The most commonly charged include:
- A prior murder conviction.
- More than one murder committed in the same incident.
- Murder for hire, whether the defendant took payment or hired someone else.
- An especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel killing showing exceptional depravity.
- Circumstances showing utter disregard for human life.
- Murder committed during arson, rape, robbery, burglary, kidnapping, or mayhem.
- Murder committed during a sex offense against a child.
- A pattern of conduct suggesting future murders are probable.
- Killing a law enforcement officer or judicial official targeted for their role.
- Killing a witness to prevent testimony.
The same statute bars the death penalty for defendants found to have intellectual disabilities. Those cases go to a separate sentencing proceeding capped at life imprisonment.
Life on Death Row
The Idaho Maximum Security Institution was built for the state’s highest-risk inmates. People under a death sentence live in specialized housing units separated from the general prison population. The facility uses multiple layers of perimeter fencing and electronic surveillance, and staff conduct frequent welfare checks with constant visual monitoring throughout every shift.
Daily life is tightly controlled. Inmates spend most of their time in individual cells, with scheduled periods for limited recreation and showers. Under the most restrictive classification, inmates are in their cells roughly 23 hours a day and moved only in restraints. Little public information exists about whether the women’s facility in Pocatello mirrors these conditions.
How Idaho Executes People and Why the Method Is Changing
For years, lethal injection was Idaho’s sole authorized execution method, but persistent difficulty obtaining the necessary drugs left the state unable to carry out any execution between 2012 and 2024. The most recent execution was Richard Albert Leavitt on June 12, 2012. Since 1973, when Idaho passed new capital punishment legislation after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down existing death penalty laws in Furman v. Georgia, only three people have been executed in the state.
The drug problems came to a head with Thomas Creech. On February 28, 2024, the execution team spent nearly an hour trying to establish an IV line, failing eight times across his arms, hands, and ankles as veins collapsed. The state halted the procedure. A federal judge later stayed a second scheduled execution in November 2024 to allow more time for Creech’s legal challenges.
In 2023, the legislature passed House Bill 186, adding the firing squad as a backup when lethal injection drugs were unavailable. That arrangement lasted less than two years. On March 12, 2025, Governor Brad Little signed House Bill 37, which reverses the order. Effective July 1, 2026, the firing squad becomes Idaho’s primary execution method. The director of the Department of Correction must certify within five days of a death warrant whether the firing squad is available. If it is, that is the method used. If not, or if a court rules the firing squad unconstitutional, the state falls back to lethal injection.
The Department of Correction paused all executions in May 2025 to renovate the execution facility south of Boise. Construction of a firing squad chamber began in late May 2025 with an estimated timeline of six to nine months. The department is also exploring a remote-operated firing system to minimize direct staff involvement, with a traditional backup squad of shooters standing ready in case of mechanical failure. The execution team will need additional training time after the chamber is completed before any firing squad execution can take place.
From Death Warrant to Execution
Once appeals are exhausted, a district court judge signs a death warrant setting an execution date no more than 30 days out under Idaho Code § 19-2705. Serving the warrant activates the Department of Correction’s execution procedures.
During the final 48 hours, the inmate is moved to an observation cell with around-the-clock monitoring. The execution team, made up of trained staff who practice through drills, prepares for the scheduled day. On the day of execution, the IDOC director confirms the inmate’s identity and verifies that all required witnesses are present before proceeding. Witnesses typically include media representatives approved by the director, members of the victim’s family, and other individuals specified by protocol.
Why Inmates Wait Decades
The gap between sentencing and execution in Idaho routinely runs past 20 years. After a death sentence, Idaho law requires a mandatory direct appeal to the Idaho Supreme Court. If that fails, inmates can file for post-conviction relief in state court, raising issues like ineffective defense counsel or newly discovered evidence. After state remedies are exhausted, federal habeas corpus petitions follow, where courts review whether constitutional violations tainted the trial or sentencing.
The result shows in the current roster. Thomas Creech has been sentenced to death since 1983. Gerald Pizzuto since 1986. Timothy Dunlap since 1992. Even the median time on Idaho’s death row stretches well past two decades.
Clemency: The Last Option Outside Court
When appeals run out, the remaining option is clemency. The inmate files a formal petition with the Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole, which holds a hearing where both the defense and the prosecution present evidence about the inmate’s history and the crime. The Commission then votes on whether to recommend reducing the sentence to life imprisonment.
In a capital case, the Commission’s vote is only a recommendation. Under Idaho Code § 20-240A, any commutation of a death sentence must be approved by the governor to take effect. If the governor does not act within 30 days of the Commission’s recommendation, the request is automatically denied. The Idaho Supreme Court has confirmed this structure, holding that the governor has final authority over clemency in death penalty cases. That authority is rooted in a 1986 amendment to the Idaho Constitution allowing the legislature to set the terms for how commutation operates.
Two separate bodies must therefore agree before a death sentence can be reduced. The Commission acts as an independent review panel, and the governor holds effective veto power. In Gerald Pizzuto’s case, the Commission recommended clemency, the governor rejected it, and the Idaho Supreme Court upheld the governor’s authority to do so.