'Sick and wrong': Boise firm designing Idaho firing squad chamber draws protest

Sally Krutzig, Idaho Statesman on Apr 1, 2026

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BOISE, Idaho — A group of protesters made its way to the doors of a Boise engineering firm on Tuesday with a petition.

Its message? Asking the engineers to stop designing a firing squad chamber for the state of Idaho to execute death-row prisoners.

But the building’s doors were firmly locked, and no one answered the knocking.

“We’re here outside the business whose job it is to build this execution chamber,” said Abraham Bonowitz, executive director of anti-death penalty organization Death Penalty Action. “And our question has to be, would you be building the cross that they hung Jesus on?”

Advocates said they have identified three companies — engineering firm Cator Ruma, Utah-based Okland Construction and Indiana-based Elevatus Architecture — that have been contracted to redesign and modify an Idaho Department of Corrections unit so it can be used as the firing squad chamber.

Cator Ruma did not respond to the Idaho Statesman’s request for a comment or interview.

The protest, organized by national anti-death penalty organizations Death Penalty Action and Worth Rise, was attended mostly by local faith leaders and members. Fifty religious leaders, the majority from Idaho, signed the petition that they attempted to deliver.

Organizers said they plan to email the companies involved instead.

Protesters spoke at the gathering about how the death penalty was particularly relevant to Christians in the lead-up to Easter, which is Sunday. Jan Powell, a member of Idahoans Against the Death Penalty, said her Catholic faith taught her to “believe in the dignity and sanctity of human life.”

“We remember that Jesus was unjustly executed by his government,” Powell said. “As long as our legal system is capable of making mistakes, our legal system must not be entrusted with the power to kill.”

Also in attendance was Randy Gardner, whose brother was the last person to be executed by firing squad in Utah, in 2010. Gardner said an autopsy showed that all four of the firing squad members were off-center with their shots that killed his brother.

“Not only me and my family, but jurors, executioners and wardens have been traumatized by this,” Gardner said. “I think it’s just sick and wrong.”

Building the execution unit is the next step after Republicans pushed a law through the Legislature to make firing squad the primary method of execution in Idaho. It was a follow-up to a 2023 law that added the firing squad as a backup method if lethal injection is not possible, the Idaho Statesman previously reported.

Celina Chapin, chief advocacy officer at Worth Rises, told the Statesman that she has seen emails between contractors discussing the details of the firing squad chamber.

“The tone is very business as usual,” Chapin said. “‘Let’s talk about the drainage, let’s talk about the sounds that other incarcerated people are going to hear as the firing squad is happening.’”

Worth Rises previously published excerpts from an email sent by Tony Vie at Elevatus Architecture.

“They would like a floor drain in the execution room,” Vie’s email stated. “It’s OK if they have to mop/squeegee liquids to the drain. Sloping the floor will not be cost effective.”

Groups held a similar protest outside Okland Construction in Salt Lake City on Monday.

The law to making firing squad the primary means of execution will go into effect on July 1.

Idaho has not executed anyone since 2012. The planned execution of Thomas Creech in 2024 could not be carried out because a suitable vein could not be found to administer lethal drugs. That led to the firing squad push.