Chad Daybell Now: Death Row Appeal, Execution, and Letters

Chad Daybell is now on death row at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, where he has been held since June 3, 2024, after an Idaho jury convicted him of murdering his first wife, Tammy Daybell, and his second wife’s two children, Tylee Ryan, 16, and Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7. His attorney has appealed both the verdict and the death sentence, and the case is before the Idaho Supreme Court.¹

Where Chad Daybell Is Being Held

Daybell entered Idaho Department of Correction custody at 9:34 a.m. on June 3, 2024, two days after he was sentenced to death.² IDOC records list him at J Block of the Idaho Maximum Security Institution under offender number 158991. His sentence satisfaction date for the murder and conspiracy convictions is recorded as “Death”; for the two insurance fraud convictions, the date is June 4, 2035.³ He is one of the male residents on Idaho’s death row at the facility.⁴

What He Was Convicted Of

On May 30, 2024, an Ada County jury found Daybell guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of Tammy Daybell, Tylee Ryan, and JJ Vallow, plus conspiracy to commit murder and two counts of insurance fraud. Two days later, on June 1, the same jury sentenced him to death.⁵

Tammy Daybell, a 49-year-old librarian, was found dead in her home on October 19, 2019. A coroner initially attributed her death to a heart attack, but after her body was exhumed that December an autopsy determined she had died of asphyxiation by suffocation.⁶ Prosecutors said Daybell had maxed out her life insurance policies in the month before her death, naming himself as beneficiary on coverage totaling $430,000, and was living off the proceeds afterward.⁷ Seventeen days after her death, he married Lori Vallow in Hawaii.⁸

Tylee Ryan was last seen on September 8, 2019, at Yellowstone National Park; JJ Vallow was last seen on September 22, 2019.⁹ Their remains were discovered on June 9, 2020, buried on Daybell’s property in Fremont County, Idaho, and he was arrested the same day.¹⁰

Prosecutors framed the case around “money, power and sex,” arguing that Daybell killed Tammy to collect insurance money and be with Lori Vallow, and that the children were killed because they stood in the way of the couple’s plans.¹¹ Text messages introduced at trial included Lori Vallow writing “Tammy’s in the way” and later exchanges referencing “death percentages for Tammy” and claiming she was “possessed by a spirit named Viola.”⁶ Daybell did not testify in his own defense and did not address the court at sentencing.⁵

The Appeal Before the Idaho Supreme Court

Defense attorney John Prior filed a notice of appeal on June 3, 2024, the day Daybell entered prison, challenging both the guilty verdict and the death sentence. Prior also asked that appellate counsel be appointed, citing Daybell’s inability to pay. Judge Steven Boyce granted the request on June 6, 2024, ordering two qualified attorneys from the Idaho State Appellate Public Defender’s office to handle the appeal and any post-conviction proceedings.¹²

The appeal identifies several grounds for reversal:

Whether the court erred in denying the defense’s motion to dismiss the grand jury indictment.
Whether the court erred in ruling a defense expert’s report and testimony inadmissible.
Whether the prosecution was improperly allowed to amend its indictment after resting its case.
Whether the court erred in denying the defense’s motion to dismiss.
Whether the reasonable doubt instructions given to the jury at both the guilt and sentencing phases were proper.

The defense has reserved the right to raise additional issues as the appeal proceeds.¹

Under Idaho law, every death sentence receives an automatic review by the Idaho Supreme Court, and the sentence is temporarily suspended during that review. Capital appeals typically take many years; nationally, death row inmates wait more than a decade on average for execution or for a court to overturn their sentence.¹³ Judge Boyce also permanently sealed 97 trial exhibits, including autopsy and crime scene photographs.¹⁴

How Idaho Would Carry Out the Sentence

If Daybell’s appeals fail, the method Idaho uses to carry out executions has changed. In March 2025, Governor Brad Little signed legislation making the firing squad the state’s primary execution method, effective July 1, 2026. Lawmakers cited the scarcity of lethal injection drugs and a failed attempt to execute another death row inmate, Thomas Creech, in February 2024, when officials could not establish an IV line.¹⁵

The Idaho Department of Correction has spent more than $1.2 million retrofitting the execution chamber at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, where Daybell is housed. It has purchased five .308-caliber rifles and is recruiting six law enforcement volunteers to serve as the firing squad, whose identities will remain confidential. As of mid-2026, the department says it is “nearly ready” to carry out executions under the new protocol.¹⁶ Idaho has carried out only three executions since 1976, the most recent being Richard Leavitt in 2012.¹³

Chad Daybell’s Letters From Prison

In August 2025, Daybell’s daughter Emma Murray launched a website called “Letters From Chad” and an X account to publish letters her father has written from prison. They are his first public comments on the case. In them, Daybell denies involvement in the murders, writing, “I am not a conspirator or a killer. I never have been.” He says his attorneys instructed him to show no emotion at trial, which he believes made him appear “cold and uncaring.” Of Tammy Daybell, he writes, “I loved her, and I still do… She was the anchor of my life, and I never considered harming her,” despite trial testimony that she showed no signs of illness before her death.¹⁷

Where Lori Vallow Daybell Stands

Daybell’s co-defendant and second wife, Lori Vallow Daybell, was tried separately and is not on death row. An Idaho jury convicted her in May 2023 of murdering her two children and conspiring to kill Tammy Daybell, and on July 31, 2023, she was sentenced to five life sentences without the possibility of parole, three of them running consecutively.¹⁸

An Arizona jury later convicted her of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the death of her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, and in the attempted murder of Brandon Boudreaux. On July 25, 2025, she received two additional life sentences with parole eligibility after 25 years on each count, to run consecutively to her Idaho sentences; she noted at the hearing that she was serving a total of seven life sentences.¹⁹ She is also pursuing an Idaho appeal, with her attorney filing a brief to the Idaho Supreme Court in March 2026 alleging Sixth Amendment right-to-counsel violations and due process errors tied to rulings made while she was declared legally incompetent.²⁰

1
Court TV. Chad Daybell’s Attorney Files Appeal Following Death Sentence Decision
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Fox 13 Now. Chad Daybell Transferred to Maximum Security Prison Following Death Sentence Decision
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Idaho Department of Correction. Resident Client Search – Chad Guy Daybell
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Idaho Department of Correction. Death Row
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ABC News. Jury Reaches Decision on Chad Daybell Sentencing
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NPR. Chad Daybell Verdict
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Idaho Statesman. Chad Daybell Insurance Fraud Testimony
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ABC News. Chad Daybell Verdict
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CBS News. Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell Case Timeline
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NBC News. Chad Daybell Verdict Murder Trial
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ABC News. Chad Daybell Murder Trial Opening Statements
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KSL TV. Chad Daybell’s Appeal and Public Defender Appointment
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Boise State Public Radio. How Idaho’s Death Penalty Works
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East Idaho News. Judge Permanently Seals Nearly 100 Exhibits From Chad Daybell Trial
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Death Penalty Information Center. Idaho Death Penalty Information
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Idaho Statesman. Idaho Firing Squad Execution Preparations
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NewsNation. Chad Daybell Letters Website Prison
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Fox 10 Phoenix. Lori Daybell Prosecutors Want Judge Hand Down Two More Life Sentences
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ABC News. Lori Daybell Sentencing Murder Conspiracy Arizona
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KTVB. Lori Vallow Daybell Appeals Murder Convictions