$200,000 Spent on Lethal Injection Drugs in Idaho Since 2023 Now Unusable

The Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) has admit­ted to spend­ing $200,000 on lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tion drugs since 2023, all of which have since expired with­out use. Josh Tewalt, the for­mer direc­tor of IDOC said in recent court fil­ings that the drugs in IDOC’s pos­ses­sion expired because of repeat­ed delays asso­ci­at­ed with sched­ul­ing an exe­cu­tion. Sanda Kuzeta-Cerimagic, an IDOC spokesper­son, told the Idaho Statesman that the depart­ment does not cur­rent­ly have lethal injec­tion drugs in its pos­ses­sion; how­ev­er, depart­ment offi­cials are ​“con­fi­dent” they can acquire more exe­cu­tion drugs ​“should the need arise.” Ms. Kuzeta-Cerimagic added that ​“there is no return pol­i­cy on the chem­i­cals, sim­i­lar to how pre­scrip­tion med­ica­tions are non­re­turn­able — but they remain nec­es­sary for the state.” As not­ed by the Statesman, ​“the department’s pri­or lethal injec­tion drug pur­chas­es were a total finan­cial loss to the state.”

Since 2010, most of the largest phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies have refused to pro­vide pris­ons, includ­ing Idaho’s, with drugs for use in exe­cu­tions because of prin­ci­pled oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty. As a result, some states began to pro­cure drugs using less con­ven­tion­al means, turn­ing to over­seas phar­ma­cies and local com­pound­ing phar­ma­cies. In both 2011 and 2012, Idaho resort­ed to buy­ing lethal injec­tion drugs from com­pound­ing phar­ma­cies with ques­tion­able his­to­ries in neigh­bor­ing states. In 2022, Governor Brad Little signed leg­is­la­tion that con­ceals iden­ti­fy­ing infor­ma­tion on the pro­duc­ers and sup­pli­ers of drugs used in exe­cu­tions. Because of con­tin­ued chal­lenges in acquir­ing the drugs need­ed for exe­cu­tions, IDOC called offthe December 2022 sched­uled exe­cu­tion of Gerald Pizzuto.

In 2023, an Ada County judge issued a death war­rant for Thomas Creech, sched­ul­ing an exe­cu­tion date for November 2023. This exe­cu­tion date was post­poned in order to pro­vide Mr. Creech with a full clemen­cy hear­ing, which took place in January 2024. When he was denied clemen­cy, the court sched­uled anoth­er exe­cu­tion date for February 28, 2024. IDOC attempt­ed to car­ry out Mr. Creech’s exe­cu­tion, the state’s first exe­cu­tion since 2012, but ulti­mate­ly failed to exe­cute him after an hour of repeat­ed attempts to estab­lish the IV line need­ed for the lethal injec­tion drugs. Mr. Creech’s attor­neys had warned IDOC offi­cials in advance that his age (then 73) and med­ical con­di­tions, includ­ing Type 2 dia­betes, hyper­ten­sion, and ede­ma, could impact cir­cu­la­tion and vein qual­i­ty. Idaho set anoth­er exe­cu­tion date for Mr. Creech in November 2024; how­ev­er, a fed­er­al dis­trict court issued a stay of exe­cu­tion to allow for addi­tion­al time to con­sid­er Mr. Creech’s legal claims. With each sched­uled exe­cu­tion date, IDOC pur­chased the lethal injec­tion drugs need­ed for the exe­cu­tion. Public records reveal that the state spent $200,000 on lethal injec­tion drugs in its efforts to exe­cute Mr. Creech — $50,000 in October 2023, $100,000 in June 2024, and $50,000 in October 2024. 

Other states have also spent large sums to acquire lethal injec­tion drugs. An April 2025 record request by the Indiana Capital Chronicle revealed the Indiana Department of Corrections spent $900,000 on the drugs need­ed to car­ry out the lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tion of Joseph Corcoran in December 2024. According to records request­ed by The Tennessean, between 2017 and 2025, the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) spent near­ly $600,000 of tax­pay­er funds obtain­ing drugs for lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions. Specific infor­ma­tion about the drugs’ sources and ori­gins remain unknown because of Tennessee’s secre­cy pro­vi­sions, much like Idaho’s provisions.