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Idaho Executes Paul Ezra Rhoades for Three 1987 Murders, the State's First Execution Since 1994

In his final words Rhoades apologized for one of the killings but not the other two. Last-minute appeals, including one to the U.S. Supreme Court, failed.

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Illustration of a low prison complex in high-desert sagebrush at a pink winter dawn, with steam rising and mountains behind. Not the actual prison.

Paul Ezra Rhoades killed three people in eastern Idaho over three weeks in 1987. On November 18, 2011, Idaho executed him, its first execution since 1994.

Rhoades was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 9:15 a.m. at the state prison complex near Boise, after last-minute appeals, including one to the U.S. Supreme Court the night before, failed. It was only Idaho's second execution since 1957. In his final words he apologized for the murder of Susan Michelbacher but told the families of his other two victims, "I can't help you guys, sorry," according to an Associated Press reporter who witnessed the execution. Tom Moss, who prosecuted him in 1987, said, "Nothing brings total justice. They don't get their loved ones back. But it brings some satisfaction to them."

Rhoades had been sentenced to death for the kidnappings and murders of Michelbacher, a special education teacher at Eagle Rock Junior High in Idaho Falls, and Stacy Baldwin, 21, who was abducted on February 28, 1987, from the convenience store where she worked near Blackfoot. He pleaded guilty to the 1987 murder of Nolan Haddon, 20, and was sentenced to life. He was arrested in Nevada on March 25, 1987, and the Idaho Supreme Court upheld his death sentences in 1991. His appeals focused largely on technicalities and on his abusive childhood and drug addiction.

The Spokesman-Review gave Susan Michelbacher's age as 34, while the victim impact statement quoted by the Idaho Supreme Court said she was 31.

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