Idaho says it will try again to execute prisoner who survived first botched attempt
The 74-year-old is the state’s longest-serving death row inmate
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Idaho plans to execute a 74-year-old man - the state’s long-serving death row prisoner - next month after officials botched his first execution.
Thomas Creech is set to be executed by lethal injection on November 13, according to a death warrant signed by Ada County District Judge Jason Scott on Wednesday. He was initially scheduled to be killed in February, but officials called it off when they couldn’t find a suitable vein to administer the lethal injection.
Creech is the first person in state history to survive an execution attempt. If he is executed in November, he will be the first person killed by the state in more than 12 years, according to the Idaho Statesman. Officials served the warrant Wednesday morning, and Creech is now in a cell near the execution chamber, according to the Idaho Department of Correction.
The 74-year-old was convicted of five murders from 1974 to 1981. He was initially convicted of killing two men in Valley County in 1974. He was then found to have beaten a fellow inmate to death while in prison in 1981.
He was later convicted of killing a fourth person in Oregon and a fifth person in California. Prosecutors say they believe Creech may have killed as many as 42 people, the Statesman reports, but Creech’s attorney says that figure is exaggerated.
Wednesday’s death warrant marks the 13th issued by the state since his initial sentencing in 1976.
Creech also filed a lawsuit earlier this year arguing he suffered cruel and unusual punishment because he developed several health conditions as a result of the botched execution. Scott dismissed that case in September.
“I laid on that table and fully expected to die that day,” Creech told the Statesman over the summer. “And actually, to be honest with you, I still feel like I’m dead and this is just the afterlife.”
Deborah Czuba, a supervising attorney with the Federal Defender Services of Idaho that is representing Creech, said the state should not be planning another execution after February’s botched attempt.
“We are heartbroken and angered that Idaho would try again to execute Thomas Creech using virtually the same process and team of executioners, and before conducting any official review of what led to the botched attempt to take his life earlier this year,” Czuba said in a statement, according to the Statesman. “The level of recklessness puts Idaho in a class by itself.”
The execution procedures have been improved to ensure this next attempt is not botched, Governor Brad Little’s spokesperson Joan Varsek told the Statesman.
“As the chief executive of state government, Gov. Little’s job is to follow the law and ensure lawful criminal sentences are carried out,” Varsek said. “The improvements to the execution procedures help ensure the state of Idaho can carry out just sentences as ordered by the court.”