By Rebecca Boone—
The Associated Press
Idaho this Wednesday delayed the execution of serial killer Thomas Eugene Creech, one of the longest serving death row inmates in the United States,
after trying unsuccessfully to apply lethal injection.
Creech, 73, was imprisoned in 1974 and has been convicted of five murders in three states and suspected of several more.
He was already serving a life sentence when in 1981 he beat to death a fellow inmate, David Dale Jensen, 22, the crime for which Creech was to be executed more than four decades later.
Creech was carried on a stretcher at 10:00 am to the Idaho Maximum Security Institution ward.
The warden announced that he was suspending the execution about 58 minutes later.
Thomas Eugene Creech.Idaho Department of Correction via AP
Six Idaho officials, including Attorney General Raul Labrador, and four media representatives, including an Associated Press journalist, witnessed the attempt.
The Idaho prison warden stated that the medical team was unable to establish an intravenous line to administer the deadly drug.
Three members of that group
repeatedly attempted to establish an intravenous line in Creech's arms and legs.
The tracts appeared to be in the crook of the arms, in the hands, near the ankles, and in the feet.
At one point, the cart with the medical supplies was placed in front of the media witnesses' observation window, preventing them from seeing the efforts of the medical team.
One member also had to leave the execution chamber to collect more supplies.
With each attempt to insert an IV, the medical team cleaned the skin with alcohol, injected a numbing solution, cleaned the skin again, and then attempted to successfully place the IV catheter into a vein.
Each attempt lasted several minutes, during which members of the medical team felt the skin around the IV and watched carefully as they tried to place the needles.
Throughout the proceedings, Creech frequently looked at his family members and attorneys, who were seated in a separate witness room.
Her arms were tied to the table, but she often extended her fingers toward them, sometimes in a half-wave, sometimes just spreading them out.
On one occasion he seemed to say “I love you” to someone in the room.
After stopping the execution, the warden approached Creech, whispered to him for several minutes and squeezed his arm.
Creech's attorneys immediately filed a new motion for a stay in U.S. District Court, stating: “Given the severity of this morning's attempted execution, which demonstrates the inability of the Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) to , in English) to carry out a humane and constitutional execution, the undersigned attorneys preemptively request an emergency stay of execution
to prevent further attempts today.
The IDOC stated that Creech's execution order was set to expire and that it was studying next steps.
[The Texas Board of Pardons denies Ivan Cantu's clemency petition to prevent his execution on February 28]
Creech's lawyers filed a series of late appeals in hopes of avoiding his execution.
They alleged that his clemency hearing had been unfair, that it was unconstitutional to execute him because he had been convicted by a judge and not a jury, and that he had received ineffective legal assistance.
But the courts found no grounds for leniency.
Creech's last chance — a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court — was denied just hours before his scheduled execution this Wednesday.
On Tuesday night, Creech spent time with his wife at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, south of Boise, and ate a final meal that
included fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy and ice cream.
A group of about 15 protesters had gathered outside the prison on Wednesday, and at one point sang
Amazing Grace,
a Christian hymn.
Creech, a native of Ohio, has spent most of his life behind bars in Idaho, although his crimes were committed in several western states.
He was first imprisoned in Idaho in 1974 for the shooting deaths of John Wayne Bradford and Edward Thomas Arnold, two house painters who had picked up Creech and his girlfriend while
hitchhiking
.
He was serving a life sentence for those murders in 1981, when he beat Jensen to death, who was disabled and serving time for car theft.
The Idaho Maximum Security Institution, near Kuna, Idaho, on Wednesday, February 28, 2024. Kyle Green / AP
Jensen's family members described him as a kind soul who loved to hunt and be outdoors during Creech's clemency hearing last month.
Jensen's daughter was only four years old when he died, and she spoke of how painful it was to grow up without a father, piecing together everything she knows about him from other people's descriptions and memories.
Creech's supporters have pushed for his sentence to be converted to life in prison without parole, saying he is a profoundly changed man.
Several years ago he married the mother of a prison officer, and former prison workers said he was known for writing poetry and frequently expressing gratitude for his work.
During his clemency hearing, Ada County Deputy Prosecutor Jill Longhorst did not deny that Creech can be charming.
However, she claimed that he is a psychopath who lacks remorse and empathy.
In addition to the Idaho murders, Creech was convicted of killing William Joseph Dean in Oregon and Vivian Grant Robinson in California in 1974.
He was also charged with murdering Sandra Jane Ramsamooj that same year — also in Oregon — but the charge was later dropped in light of his other murder convictions.
In 1973, Creech was tried for the murder of 70-year-old Paul Schrader in Tucson, Arizona, but was acquitted of the crime.
Authorities continue to believe he was responsible for that homicide and said Creech provided information that led them to the bodies of two people near Las Vegas and another near Baggs, Wyoming.
Creech's execution
was to be the first in Idaho in 12 years.
Last year, Idaho lawmakers passed a law authorizing execution by firing squad when lethal injection is not available.
Prison officials have not yet drafted a standard operating policy for the use of this method, nor have they built a facility where an execution by firing squad can be carried out.
Both of these things would have to happen before the state could attempt to use the new law, which would likely trigger several legal challenges in court.