State And Federal Info
The death penalty was established in Idaho in 1864, before statehood. Since 1864, Idaho has carried out 29 executions. In 1901, executions were moved to Idaho’s state prison. Prior to that, executions were carried out on a county level, and were often public. Idaho’s last hanging was conducted in 1957.
Donald Paradis spent 14 years on death row in Idaho before his murder convictions were overturned and he was released from prison. Two murders were committed in Paradis’ home in Washington, but he was not present at the time. When he returned home and found the two bodies, he helped transport them across the state line to Idaho. Although Paradis was acquitted of the murders in Washington, a medical examiner suggested that one of the victims may have been killed in Idaho, and Paradis was tried and convicted there. Paradis’ lawyer had never studied criminal law or tried a case before a jury, and he was working as a police officer at the same time he was representing Paradis. In 2001, Paradis pleaded guilty to moving the bodies after the murder. He was sentenced to 5 years and released on time served.
Charles Fain was convicted of murder in 1983. Several witnesses testified that Fain was living in Oregon at the time of the crime, and that he only returned to Idaho the following month. Fain agreed to provide hair samples to investigators, and an FBI expert testified that the samples matched evidence from the crime scene. New DNA testing methods used in 2001 not only excluded Fain as a suspect, but pointed to two other suspects. Fain’s conviction was vacated, and prosecutors stated that “justice requires the action we have taken today,” indicating that the investigation for the killer would be re-opened.
In 1864, the year after Idaho became a territory, the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Idaho established the death penalty. The first territorial execution occurred the same year.
Capital punishment was reinstated in Idaho on July 7, 1973, after the United States Supreme Court struck down all death penalty statutes across the country in the 1972 Furman v. Georgia decision.
Arbitrariness
Aug 12, 2019
NEWS — August 15: Tennessee has executed Stephen Michael West after Governor Bill Lee denied his petition for clemency. West was the eleventh person executed in the United States in 2019 and the second in Tennessee.…
Mar 28, 2019
Judges in Idaho and Nebraska have ordered prison officials to release execution-related records the states had sought to keep secret. Finding that the Idaho Department of Correction (IDOC) acted frivolously and in…
Feb 05, 2019
Idaho officials deliberately misled the public about the costs and application of the state’s death penalty and prison officials’ questionable efforts at obtaining execution drugs, according to evidence presented in week-long cour…
Lethal Injection
May 25, 2018
Courts in Idaho and Indiana are grappling with how to respond to legal challenges to lethal-injection secrecy laws after corrections officials in both states refused to release execution information requested unde…
Costs
Jan 11, 2018
To deter future use of the death penalty in their county, the Blaine County, Idaho County Commissioners on January 2 voted to consider withdrawing from the state’s Capital Crimes Defense Fund as a way to…
Mental Illness
Feb 03, 2017
Bills to exempt individuals with severe mental illness from facing the death penalty are expected in at least seven states in 2017. Legislators in Idaho, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio
Lethal Injection
Oct 23, 2015
Arizona and Texas attempted to import lethal injection drugs in violation of federal law, but the shipments were halted by U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials in late July, according to reports by
Costs
Mar 19, 2014
A new, but limited, study of the costs of the death penalty in Idaho found that capital cases are more costly and take much more time to resolve than non-capital cases. One measure of death-penalty costs was reflected in the time …
Race
Jul 03, 2012
In the first half of 2012, eight states carried out 23 executions. In the same period last year, there were 25 executions in 9 states. The annual number of executions has declined significantly from its peak in 1999, when 98 people were executed. …
Executions Overview
Jun 11, 2012
On June 8, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that witnesses should have full viewing-access to executions carried out in Idaho, siding with the Associated Press and other media outlets. Seventeen news …
