Idaho has life without parole.    The State Commission of Pardons and Paroles has the authority to grant clemency. Also the Governor may grant respites and reprieves not extending past the next session of the Commission.


Idaho has had only one execution since the death penalty was reinstated and that was of an inmate who waived his appeals. In 2003 a bill was signed shifting the responsibility of sentencing from the judge to the jury, in compliance with the United States' Supreme Court decision in Ring v. Arizona