Gerald F. Schroeder

Gerald F. Schroeder (born September 13, 1939) is a former chief justice of the Idaho Supreme Court. He was appointed to the court in 1995 by Governor Phil Batt,^[1] and was elected chief justice by his peers in 2004.^[2] He served on the court for over a dozen years and retired in July 2007.^[2]

Born in Boise, Idaho, Schroeder attended public schools in Caldwell and Baker, Oregon, where he was salutatorian at Baker High School in 1957. He attended the College of Idaho in Caldwell and received a B.A. in history in 1961, and originally had planned to be a history professor. He took the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) on a whim and did well and was accepted to law school at Harvard University near Boston,^[2] and earned his J.D. in 1964.

Schroeder returned to Idaho and worked for several firms and was a deputy U.S. attorney until 1969, when he became a county probate judge in Boise, and then a magistrate two years later. He became a state judge in 1975 in the fourth district (Boise), a position he held for two decades, until his appointment to the state supreme court in January 1995.^[2] Schroeder retained his seat in 1996 and 2002, unopposed in both statewide elections.^[3][4]

As a district judge, Schroeder made headlines in 1987 as he ruled that the state lottery initiative, approved by voters the previous November, was unconstitutional.^[5] His decision was upheld 4-1 by the state supreme court,^[6] and resulted in an amendment to the state constitution. Voters approved that in November 1988,^[7][8][9] and the lottery was launched in July 1989.^[10]

Schroeder handed out a death sentence to double-murderer Keith Wells in 1992,^[11] which was carried out in January 1994, Idaho's first execution in over 36 years and only the tenth in state history.^[12][13] He was among the officials that witnessed the execution by lethal injection at the state prison, south of Boise.^[2][13]

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