Rhoades execution cost state $53,000

BOISE – The execution of Paul Ezra Rhoades last month for his role in the 1987 murders of two women cost the state more than $53,000, Idaho prison officials said Friday.

Rhoades died on Nov. 18 at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution after being administered three separate drugs that make up the state’s new lethal injection protocol. Prison officials spent $53,411 while preparing for and carrying out the state’s first execution in 17 years, officials said.

Idaho Department of Correction Director Brent Reinke detailed the cost, saying about $25,500 went to cover overtime department staff accrued and more than $27,800 went toward operating costs, such as medical supplies, equipment rentals and meals.

In comparison, Reinke said the Oregon Department of Corrections spent an estimated $57,574 in preparation for the execution of death row inmate Gary Haugen before he was granted a temporary reprieve on Nov. 22, two weeks before he was scheduled to be executed.

Rhoades was the first Idaho inmate to be executed since 1994 and the only person to be involuntarily put to death in the state since 1957.

An Idaho Falls native, Rhoades was convicted in the kidnapping and murders of 34-year-old Susan Michelbacher and 21-year-old Stacy Dawn Baldwin. He was also sentenced to life in prison for the murder of 20-year-old Nolan Haddon.