Idaho prisoner Thomas Creech’s execution delayed. Federal judge says he’ll issue stay
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Kevin Fixler, Idaho Statesman
BOISE (Idaho Statesman) – A federal judge said Tuesday that he would issue a stay of execution for Idaho death row prisoner Thomas Creech, who was scheduled to be put to death next week after a failed attempt to do so earlier this year.
U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow, a senior judge from the District of Arizona who has subbed in because of potential conflicts of interest for Idaho’s federal judges, said it was necessary to wait on the Idaho Supreme Court’s ruling on similar arguments before the federal case could proceed. Creech’s attorneys with the Federal Defender Services of Idaho have alleged in the case that a second attempt to execute Creech would violate his constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment.
“I’m not going to rush justice in a case like this,” Snow said at a hearing Tuesday. “Even if the (high court) opinion came down today, I would be inclined to stay this matter for at least 20 days.”
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The Idaho Attorney General’s Office, represented at the hearing by LaMont Anderson, the office’s chief capital deputy attorney general, opposed the issuance of a stay. A stay will exceed the expiration date of the standing death warrant for Creech, Anderson acknowledged.
Creech, 74, is Idaho’s longest-serving death row prisoner, and will have been imprisoned for 50 years as of Thursday. A death warrant — the 13th since Creech was initially sentenced to death in 1976 — was served to him on Oct. 16 and scheduled his execution by lethal injection on Nov. 13.
Creech survived a prior attempt to execute him by lethal injection in February. After about an hour, the prison’s execution team was unable to locate a suitable vein to establish an IV for the lethal chemicals, and state prison leadership called it off.
The Idaho Statesman’s requests for comment were not immediately returned by Creech’s attorneys, the AG’s office or the Idaho Department of Correction.