Chad Daybell was sentenced to death for the murder of his wife and Lori Vallow's children. A firing squad could execute him

Chad Daybell was sentenced to death after six weeks of harrowing testimony at his high-profile murder trial in Idaho – and he could die by firing squad thanks to a new law.

Daybell, 55, a self-proclaimed prophet of a “doomsday cult” with extreme religious beliefs who decided to lead a group of 144,000 people to be saved during the second coming of Jesus Christ in 2020, is now the ninth person on death row in Idaho. after a jury found him guilty last week. Prosecutors said it was Daybell's “desire for sex, power and money” that led to the 2019 murders of his wife Tammy Daybell and the two youngest children of his then-girlfriend Lori Vallow – Tylee Ryan, 16, and JJ Vallow – whose remains were found buried in her Rexburg home in June 2020, nine months after they disappeared.

Two days after Daybell was found guilty, the same jury decided he would be sentenced to death. A decision that aroused no emotion in Daybell. When asked by Judge Steven Boyce if he wanted to make a statement, he declined.

The death penalty in Idaho is rarely used, but it has received renewed attention following the bizarre Daybell case, as well as the case of Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger , charged with the November 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the state of Idaho has carried out only three executions since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment. The first dates back to 1994, followed by two others in 2011 and 2012.

Today, the method of execution in Idaho is making headlines.

Last year, Idaho became the fifth state to authorize the use of firing squads as a method of execution. The law took effect July 1, 2023. The only other states allowing firing squads are Mississippi, Utah, Oklahoma and South Carolina.

However, Utah is the only state to have used firing squads in the past 50 years, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center.

On June 18, 2010, Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed at the Utah State Prison for killing an attorney during an attempted escape from the courthouse.

Gardner was sitting in a chair, sandbags around him and a target pinned to his heart, according to The Associated Press. Five prison staff members chosen from a group of volunteers fired .30-caliber rifles from 25 feet away. Gardner was pronounced dead two minutes later.

A blank cartridge was loaded into a rifle without anyone knowing which one. This was done in part to allow those who were later embarrassed by their participation to believe that they may not have fired a fatal bullet.

The renewed interest in using the firing squad as a means of execution comes as states seek alternatives to lethal injections after pharmaceutical companies banned the use of their drugs. Other states have reauthorized the use of electric chairs and gas chambers – or at least are considering doing so.

Some people view firing squads as less cruel than lethal injections, including Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

This idea is based on the expectation that the bullets will hit the heart, rupturing it and causing immediate loss of consciousness as the inmate quickly bleeds out, The Associated Press reported.

“In addition to being near-instantaneous, death by gunshot can also be relatively painless,” Sotomayor wrote in a 2017 dissent.

His comments concerned the case of an Alabama inmate who requested to be executed by firing squad. A majority of the Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal. In his dissent, Sotomayor said lethal drugs can mask intense pain by paralyzing inmates while they are still responsive.

“What a cruel irony that the method that seems most humane could turn out to be our cruelest experiment yet,” she wrote.

However, many still question whether death by firing squad is truly painless.

In a 2019 federal case, prosecutors submitted statements from anesthesiologist Joseph Antognini, who said painless deaths by firing squad were not guaranteed.

Detainees could remain conscious for up to 10 seconds after being shot, depending on where the bullets hit, Antognini said, and those seconds could be “very painful, especially related to bone shattering and bone damage.” spinal cord “.

Others note that executions by firing squad are visibly violent and bloody compared to lethal injections, potentially traumatizing victims' relatives and other witnesses as well as the executioners and staff who clean up afterward.

So what will happen to Daybell now?

Now that he has been sentenced, a mandatory post-conviction review will be conducted and he will be able to appeal after a death warrant is filed, CNN reported.

The appeals process in capital cases is known to last for years, often reaching the U.S. Supreme Court before an inmate is finally put to death.