BOISE, ID – The last execution in Idaho happened in 1994. That’s when Keith Eugene Wells died by lethal injection. It took place in a small trailer that looked like a temporary classroom. Friday’s scheduled execution of Paul Ezra Rhoades will take place in a new building.
The new execution chamber is called F-Block. It’s behind Idaho’s Maximum Security Institution in a gated complex that houses three other state prisons. Construction on F-Block started in May and wrapped up just days before the state served Paul Rhoades with his death warrant. Rhoades is now isolated in F-Block. Brent Reinke directs the Idaho Department of Corrections. He explains how F-Block is set up.
Brent Reinke: "It’s a building that houses two different areas: one area for the condemned family’s witnesses and the other for the state’s witnesses. The execution chamber itself, of course, contains the table, it also contains a podium, a red telephone, and a black telephone. The red telephone is for the governor’s office, the black telephone is for the courts, or the attorney general’s office."
Those phones are for a last minute stay of execution. Reinke says the 1994 death fell short in one major way - the condemned’s family and the victim’s families witnessed the injection together in the same room. Reinke says he discussed the upgrade with Governor Butch Otter who agreed that needed to change.
Brent Reinke: "So now there’s a complete separation area and this is nice if you could call that kind of an application nice. It’s as adequate and professional as any execution chamber anywhere in any of the fifty states."
Reinke says the medical and injection teams that will perform the execution are not in the chamber. They’re in a medical dispensing room – a wall away. That’s to protect their identities.
Copyright 2011 Boise State Public Radio