Paul Rhoades v. Brent Reinke

We consider Paul Ezra Rhoades’s appeal from the district court’s denial of his emergency motion for preliminary injunction or stay of execution. The district court held that the Idaho Department of Correction (“IDOC”) has provided appropriate safeguards to ensure that there is not a substantial risk of serious harm to Rhoades in the form of severe pain during the administration of the drugs used in Idaho’s three-drug lethal injection protocol; that the safeguards are substantially similar to those contained in execution protocols approved by the Supreme Court and by this court; that the IDOC is not required to implement a different, one-drug protocol in this execution; that Rhoades will suffer irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary relief; that the equities of the case do not require a different result; and that the public interest favors denial of the request for a stay of the execution. We conclude that Rhoades has not shown that he is likely to succeed in his challenge to the protocol. Hence he is not entitled to a stay, and we affirm.

Rhoades is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection by the IDOC on Friday, November 18, 2011. He filed his emergency…