Another Idaho death row inmate is scheduled to be executed. The state’s Department of Correction served Richard Leavitt a death warrant Thursday afternoon. The district judge who signed the warrant ordered the lethal injection for June 12th. Leavitt was convicted of a brutal 1984 murder of a woman in Blackfoot. Idaho executed another prisoner, Paul Rhoades, late last year. LaMont Anderson, chief of capital litigation at the Idaho Attorney General’s office says the two cases have similarities.
“A number of the death sentenced inmates in Idaho are nearing the completion of their appeal process," he says. "Paul Rhodes, of course, completed his process. Richard Leavitt has completed his. It’s just coincidence that they happen to be all completing at the about same time.”
Anderson says there is no way to know which death row inmate will finish the appeals process next, or when that might be. Meantime, attorneys for Richard Leavitt have already filed a motion in district court hoping to block the execution. Leavitt is also part of a challenge to Idaho’s execution protocol.