The execution of Charles Rhines took place on November 4, 2019, at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls.
Rhines was executed for the 1992 murder of Donnivan Schaeffer, whom he killed during a burglary at a doughnut shop in Rapid City.
He enlisted in the U.S. Army and served three years as an infantryman, earning his high school General Equivalency Degree.
After being paroled, he robbed a liquor store with a shotgun and was sentenced to ten years in prison for armed robbery.
[4] In June 1991, Rhines was hired by Dennis Digges to work as a night baker at Dig 'Em Donuts shop in Rapid City.
[4] On March 8, 1992, Rhines entered the shop using a copy of the back door key and began burglarizing the unoccupied premises.
Despite this, the state took the case to trial when they refused to drop the death penalty in exchange for a guilty plea to murder.
In 2014, Rhines wrote a letter listing seventeen other convicted murderers in South Dakota who did not receive the death penalty.
[8][9] Some of the jurors thought that a life sentence served in a men's prison is something Rhines, a gay man, would enjoy.
"[8][9] Rhines's lawyers contended his death sentence should be overturned based on anti-gay bias from jurors.
[10] On November 4, 2019, Rhines was executed via lethal injection at South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls.