Most Wednesdays, for the past 16 years, retired Bishop Kelly High School chemistry teacher Henry Krewer has stood vigil against the death penalty in front of the old post office in Downtown Boise.
Once he forgot to bring along his various anti-death penalty signs. It didn’t matter. Everyone knew why he was there.
“Idaho people should realize that giving the state the right to take a person’s life is giving up a lot,” said Krewer.
Often other members of Idahoans Against the Death Penalty join him for the weekly noon-hour vigils. But sometimes, Krewer, with his familiar Hemingway-esque beard and watch cap, stands alone.
The crowd was bigger than usual Wednesday. With the execution of convicted killer Paul Ezra Rhoades scheduled for 8:10 a.m. Friday, about seven people stood with Krewer holding signs such as “Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders.”
Idaho hasn’t executed a prisoner against his will since 1957. But with Rhoades’ execution scheduled for Friday, the state’s power to kill will go from theoretical to real.
“Now it’s a whole different ballgame,” said Krewer.
The new death chamber at the Idaho Maximum Security Prison and what Krewer calls “trained personnel” versed in administering lethal injections will only ease the way for more deaths, he said.
“To me, the execution isn’t about Rhoades,” said Judy Mimken, who joined Wednesday’s protest.
“If the government kills someone in Saudi Arabia, people can blame it on the king. It’s different in a democracy. If someone is killed by the state, he’s killed by me,” said Mimken.
HAUNTED BY WAR
Krewer, 78, joined the progressive anti-war Catholic Worker movement as a young man in his native New York.
His “respect for human life” has kept him standing for his cause for close to two decades. He was just a kid during World War II, but the war’s loss of life and images of wartime prison camps haunted him.
“I had nightmares from them. I couldn’t understand how people could do that to other people,” he said.
Krewer is Catholic, but Idahoans Against the Death Penalty is ecumenical, counting Lutherans, Buddhists and others among its supporters.
Representatives from the group, including Buddhists who plan a meditation on the morning of the execution, will be standing vigil outside the prison gates Friday morning, along with other death penalty opponents, such as the ACLU of Idaho.
ON THE CORNER OF 8TH AND BANNOCK
Krewer doesn’t get too many comments from passers-by during his Wednesday vigils, though people sometimes stop to talk.
“We’re kind of like the woodwork, we’ve been on that corner for so long,” said Krewer.
At least one person this week disagreed with the anti-death penalty group.
“I believe in capital punishment,” said Boisean Eldon Anderson. “I believe in the Second Amendment, too. If everyone had a concealed weapon, there’d be a lot less” people like Rhoades.
Krewer and the others hope Rhoades will get an 11th-hour stay of execution. But regardless of what happens Friday, they say they will continue the vigils.
Anna Webb: 377-6431
