Addressing the media in the chill of the press tent this morning, state Corrections Director Brent Reinke said, "The law requires and justice demands that Mr. Rhoades be held accountable. ... Today we carry out the execution order."

All Idaho state prisons, statewide, are on lockdown and high alert, Reinke said. In the execution chamber, there will be two phones: One red, connected to the governor's office, and one black, connected to the satellite office for Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, who is on site at the Idaho Maximum Security Prison. Reinke said his role includes picking up that black phone at 8:07 a.m. to inquire of the Attorney General if there are any last-minute legal impediments to the execution. If not, the order will be given to proceed, and the Attorney General will join the witnesses in the chamber.

Witnesses will include the sheriffs of both counties where Rhoades was convicted and sentenced to death, Bonneville County Sheriff Paul Wilde and Bingham County Sheriff Dave Johnson; prosecutors from both counties; representatives of the victims' families; Ada County Coroner Erwin Sonnenberg, who will pronounce death; Idaho Maximum Security Institution Warden Randy Blades, who will read the death warrant; Reinke; relatives of the condemned; and four media witnesses, who just were chosen by random drawing: Nate Green of the Idaho Press-Tribune, Mac King from ABC Channel 6, Ruth Brown from the Post Register in Idaho Falls, and Rebecca Boone of the AP. Said Reinke, "We are all witnesses to justice as prescribed by law."