Latest news with #HouseBill37
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
IDOC pauses all executions to build firing squad chamber
The execution chamber at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution south of Boise. (Courtesy of IDOC) This story originally published May 27 on Idaho Reports. The Idaho Department of Correction has put a pause on all state executions as of May 23 to complete renovations of the death row facility at the Idaho State Maximum Security Institution. The unit, known as F-Block, houses the existing facility for lethal injection executions. The pause is needed to allow renovation of the facility to make the firing squad the primary form of execution by July 1, 2026, according to an IDOC news release. Idaho will be only state with firing squad as main execution method, after governor signs bill The state had the firing squad as a secondary method until the Legislature passed House Bill 37 this year. Under the new law, Idaho would be the only state in the nation to use the firing squad as its primary method of execution. 'The current estimated time frame to complete this retrofit is approximately 6 to 9 months,' according to the news release. 'Following completion of the remodel, the execution team will need time to conduct training to be ready to carry out an execution by firing squad beginning July 2026. The Department is confident it will meet the required timelines and will do so on budget.' IDOC already would have had to pause lethal injection executions after U.S. District Judge Debora Grasham ordered the department in April to provide audio and visual access for media witnesses during any executions. That decision comes as a First Amendment lawsuit from a coalition of news organizations moves forward in court, according to the AP. The Associated Press, The Idaho Statesman and East Idaho News sued the state's prison director in December, arguing that key steps of the lethal injection process were being unconstitutionally hidden from public view. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Alaska becomes first state to require warnings about alcohol-cancer link under new law
Bottles of wine are displayed on June 29, 2022, at an Anchorage liquor store. Alaska is the first U.S. state to require that businesses post signs warning that alcohol consumption raises cancer risks. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon) Alaska bars and liquor stores will be required to post signs warning of alcohol's link to cancer, under a bill that became law on Friday. The new sign mandate, to go into effect on Aug. 1, makes Alaska the first U.S. state to require such health warnings. The warnings about the alcohol-cancer relationship will be added to already mandated warnings about the dangers that pregnant women's consumption can lead to birth defects. The requirement is part of a measure, Senate Bill 15, that allows employees under 21 to serve alcohol at restaurants and breweries. Lawmakers last year passed a similar bill, with the same combined provisions, but House members gave their final approval just minutes after the midnight adjournment deadline. It was one of five bills that Dunleavy vetoed because of passage after that deadline. Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage, was the leading proponent of the new signage. He sponsored a stand-alone measure, House Bill 37, that became combined with the alcohol-server measure; the same process was used last year, though passage of that bill was after the adjournment deadline. This time, the combined bill on alcohol servers and cancer warnings was approved by lawmakers well before they adjourned. It won final passage with a unanimous vote in the Senate on April 4. Dunleavy allowed the measure to become law without his signature. Alcohol consumption has been shown to increase risks of certain types of cancer, including breast and colon cancer. Gray said the relationship has gained more attention in recent years, and he some gave credit to former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. In January, Murthy issued an advisory report describing how alcohol consumption, even at moderate levels, increases risks of at least seven types of cancer. 'Alcohol consumption is the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States, after tobacco and obesity,' said the report. Murthy recommended that the label on packaging for alcoholic drinks be updated to include the cancer-risk link. Currently, South Korea is the only nation that requires warning labels about alcohol consumption increasing cancer risks. A similar warning is set to go into effect in Ireland next year. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Epoch Times
25-04-2025
- Epoch Times
Judge Rules Bryan Kohberger's Autism Does Not Preclude Death Penalty
An Idaho judge ruled on Thursday that Bryan Kohberger's autism spectrum disorder (ASD) does not warrant striking the death penalty as a potential consequence if he is convicted of murdering four University of Idaho students. The 30-year-old is accused of killing Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin, who were found stabbed to death in an off-campus rental residence in Moscow, Idaho, in November 2022. 'ASD may be a mitigating factor to be weighed against the aggravating factors in determining if a defendant should receive the death penalty, but it is not a death-penalty disqualifier,' wrote Ada County Judge Steven Hippler in his April 24, 2025, Oral argument on the motion was held April 9. The Court then took the matter under advisement until Thursday. Prosecutors said they intend to seek the death penalty if Kohberger is convicted at his trial, which is set to begin in August, while Kohberger's defense team argued that the death penalty would violate the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects against cruel and unusual punishment. The defense asked Hippler to remove the death penalty as a possible punishment, citing two states, Ohio and Kentucky, that recently enacted legislation barring people with serious mental illness from being sentenced to death. Related Stories 9/9/2024 12/31/2022 Hippler acknowledged that there is growing societal sensitivity to mental disorders generally, and said that evidence of evolving standards of decency must come from legislative and executive actions. 'Two states protecting individuals with severe mental illness from execution is not a national consensus,' Hippler wrote in his order. 'Further, these two state statutes only apply to schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder and delusional disorder, not ASD.' In addition to lethal injection, Idaho allows firing squads for executions. House Bill 37 was signed by Idaho Gov. Brad Little on March 12 and made firing squad the main method of execution starting July 1, 2026. Kohberger's defense team also cited Atkins v. Virginia, in which the Supreme Court ruled that those with intellectual disabilities cannot be executed for a crime. However, Hippler agreed with Special Assistant Attorney General Jeff Nye's 'While intellectually disabled and ASD individuals may share some of the same adaptive impairments, the intellectual deficit—an essential feature of an intellectual disability—is not a diagnostic element of ASD,' Hippler said in the order. Kohberger was a Ph.D. criminology student at Washington State University's Pullman campus when he was arrested at his parents' house in Pennsylvania in December 2022 after investigators linked Kohberger to the alleged murders through DNA testing. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Yahoo
Ohio cracking down on OVI penalties
(WKBN) — Ohio is cracking down on the penalties for OVI charges. Liv's Law, or House Bill 37, goes into effect Wednesday, changing how OVI offenses are handled. Under the new law, all the fines are increased by hundreds of dollars and an aggravated vehicular homicide's maximum penalty is raised to 20 years of jail time. With the law being so new, Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutor Mike Burnett says some of the current penalties may change, but the law's message is clear. 'So it's tragic and it's hard for the victim's families to understand why we're not more harsh on penalties, and it's hard to argue with them. It needs to be dealt with in such a fashion that people stop drinking and driving period,' Burnett said. Another part of the law allows law enforcement to collect oral fluid testing for DUI enforcement. Burnett says this will help with drug-related OVI offenses, especially after the legalization of marijuana. However, he says it might be a while before law enforcement agencies are equipped with the kits. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Idaho will be only state with firing squad as main execution method
Idaho Gov. Brad Little gives his annual State of the State address on Jan. 6, 2025, on the House floor at the Statehouse in Boise. (Photo by Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun) Idaho will become the only state to fatally shoot death row inmates as its main execution method. Idaho Gov. Brad Little last Wednesday signed into law House Bill 37, which will make the firing squad the default method on July 1, 2026. Both chambers of the Idaho Legislature widely approved the bill this year, with only three Republican state lawmakers joining all 15 Democratic lawmakers to oppose it. The Senate passed the bill on a 28-7 vote last week, a month after the House passed it on a 58-11 vote. Nine people are on death row in Idaho, according to the Idaho Department of Correction. SC inmate executed by firing squad, a first nationwide since 2010 Only five states, including South Carolina, allow firing squads for executions. But the firing squad isn't the primary death penalty method in any of those states, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Since 2023, Idaho has allowed firing squads as a backup execution method, behind lethal injection. The bill directs the Idaho Department of Correction director to develop firing squad procedures. The bill was cosponsored by Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa; Sen. Doug Ricks, R-Rexburg; and over a dozen other House Republican lawmakers. Skaug has told lawmakers Idaho's firing squad execution method would be 'mechanized.' Idaho Department of Correction spokesperson Sanda Kuzeta-Cerimagic told the Sun in February the agency is considering using 'a remote-operated weapons system alongside traditional firing squad methods.' But the agency had not finalized its policies and procedures, she said. She told the Sun on Wednesday the agency didn't have updates to share on its method of carrying out firing squad executions. But the final policies and procedures will be publicly available, she said. Supporters of the bill say the firing squad is a humane execution method. Using firing squads as the main execution method, supporters say, would avoid Idaho's issues obtaining lethal injection chemicals and dealing with decades of legal appeals that have delayed executions. 'At first when you hear firing squad, if you're not familiar with the history, you think 'well that sounds barbaric' is what I've heard from some,' Skaug told a House committee in February. 'It is certain. It is quick. And it brings justice for the victims and their families in a more expeditious manner than other types.' In 2024, Idaho canceled its last scheduled execution attempt of death row inmate Thomas Creech after officials said they failed to establish an IV line to administer lethal injection chemicals, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported. Some Idaho lawmakers recited from a 2017 dissenting opinion from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor, widely regarded as a liberal justice, who cast executions by firing squads as more humane. 'In addition to being near instant, death by shooting may also be comparatively painless,' Sotomayor wrote. Sen. Dan Foreman, R-Viola, a combat veteran and retired police officer, was the only Idaho Senate Republican to vote against the bill. 'The claims that it's instantaneous. Well, yes — sometimes it is, sometimes it is not. And if you've ever seen that, I think you would change your mind on how you're about to vote,' he told Idaho senators in debate on the bill. In 2023, Idaho passed a law to allow firing squads for executions. But that law allowed firing squads only as a back-up execution method when lethal injection — the primary execution method in Idaho law — is unavailable. Under the new bill signed into law, lethal injection will become Idaho's backup execution method. Only five states — Idaho, Utah, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Mississippi — allow firing squads for execution, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. 5th SC death row inmate scheduled for execution. Another receives a pause. In the United States, 144 executions have been carried out by firing squads, according to a 2016 law review article. Since the death penalty became reinstated in the 1970s, Utah is the only state to have executed people by firing squad, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Utah has executed three prisoners by firing squad since 1977, with the most recent firing squad execution in 2010, The Associated Press reported. But last week, Brad Sigmon became the first inmate in South Carolina executed by firing squad — the first person executed by firing squad in the U.S. since 2010, the South Carolina Daily Gazette reported. Sigmon requested he be killed by firing squad over concerns about whether lethal injection is truly a painless death, his attorney say. Renovating Idaho's execution chamber to allow for firing squads will likely cost more than the $750,000 lawmakers previously appropriated, lawmakers say. But Skaug has said any extra funds would come from money already in the Department of Correction budget. Renovations to the South Carolina death chamber to allow for a firing squad execution cost $53,500, according to the state Department of Corrections in March 2022, when it notified the state attorney general of its ability to carry out the law adding the option. South Carolina's method is not mechanized. Like the SC Daily Gazette, Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@
