IDAHO (USA): FIRST EXECUTION SINCE 1994

Paul Ezra Rhoades, 53, white, was executed this morning, in Idaho’s 1st execution since 1994 and only its 2nd since 1977.
Rhoades admitted his crimes, which terrorized an eastern Idaho community for 3 weeks in 1987. His appeals have focused mostly on technicalities and on his abusive childhood and drug addiction. Rhoades was sentenced to death for the 1987 kidnapping and murders of 34 year old Susan Michelbacher and 21 year old Stacy Dawn Baldwin. Following the 1987 murder of 20 year old Nolan Haddon, Rhoades was also sentenced to life in prison without parole. About 45 people gathered in a circle in the freezing darkness outside Idaho’s state prison complex this morning to protest capital punishment. Rhoades becomes the 43rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1277th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. One more execution is scheduled in the USA this year, in Oregon, on Dec. 6. If carried out as expected, there would be 44 executions in the country this year, continuing a downward trend; there were 46 executions in the USA last year and 52 in 2009.