U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear Idaho death-row case

[struggle4progress]

By REBECCA BOONE

The Associated Press
First published 5 hours ago
Updated 5 hours ago

BOISE, Idaho • The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to consider the case of Idaho death-row inmate Paul Ezra Rhoades, effectively ending the appeals of his death sentence.

Rhoades was convicted of three murders in Idaho Falls and Blackfoot in 1988 and sentenced to death for two of them. In his petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, Rhoades said a lower court judge was wrong to refuse to have an evidentiary hearing on claims that his attorneys were ineffective when it came time to present evidence of mental illness during his sentencing.

The ruling means Rhoades could become the first person executed in Idaho since 1994, and the only person to be involuntarily executed in the last half-century.

But Rhoades still has a few options to potentially stop or stave off an execution. He’s already filed a lawsuit challenging Idaho’s method of lethal injection in Boise’s U.S. District Court; the judge in that case could decide to issue another stay of execution while that lawsuit works its way through the courts ...

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/52706150-68/rhoades-court-idaho-death.html.csp

[MasahikoKimura]

1. Idaho death-row case !!!

Hello...Imagine that, twenty-one-year-old Stacy Baldwin working at the Mini Barn convenience store in Blackfoot, Idaho, on February 28, 1987 was illegally arrested by Paul Ezra RHOADES. After a brief trial without witnesses, jury or judge and no charges at all filed against her, he drove her to a secluded area near the Snake River and shot her multiple times when she resisted his attack and attempted to escape. One of the bullets pierced her lungs, and she died about one hour after he left her in the snow. Now 24 years later he is still pleading for his life. I am not moved. I’d like to hear someone make an argument in favor of keeping this mutt alive on the taxpayers dime.

Thanks for the update.
Masahiko