Idaho Amends Lethal Injection Execution Protocol and Sets Second Execution Date for Thomas Creech

On October 15, 2024, the Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) amend­ed its exe­cu­tion pro­to­col and facil­i­ties to enable staff to place a cen­tral intra­venous line, if nec­es­sary, to deliv­er lethal injec­tion drugs to a pris­on­er. IDOC now has a new exe­cu­tion prepa­ra­tion room in which venous access would be estab­lished pri­or to trans­fer­ring the pris­on­er to the exe­cu­tion cham­ber. This change, and accom­pa­ny­ing prison ren­o­va­tions this past sum­mer, came after the February 28, 2024 failed exe­cu­tion of the state’s old­est death row pris­on­er, Thomas Creech, whose exe­cu­tion was halt­ed after cor­rec­tion­al staff failed to set intra­venous lines after an hour of effort and eight attempts. A day after the exe­cu­tion pro­to­col was mod­i­fied, Idaho issued a war­rant sched­ul­ing Mr. Creech’s sec­ond exe­cu­tion date for November 13, 2024. 

“Idaho has now made itself the first state in the his­to­ry of the coun­try to try to use lethal injec­tion a sec­ond time on the same inmate after fail­ing the first time,” said Deborah Czuba, one of Mr. Creech’s attor­neys and super­vis­ing attor­ney for the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Defenders of Idaho in a writ­ten state­ment. ​“The state is sac­ri­fic­ing com­mon decen­cy and human­i­ty in its haste for an exe­cu­tion. Mr. Creech’s legal team is fight­ing to save Mr. Creech’s life on many fronts. Mr. Creech has spent more than 50 years in prison and is now suf­fer­ing from sig­nif­i­cant men­tal health issues because of the trau­ma he was sub­ject­ed to when the state failed to exe­cute him. We hope the courts will rec­og­nize the cru­el and unusu­al lev­el of pun­ish­ment that this remorse­ful and harm­less old man has already been through, and stop a need­less exe­cu­tion.” The state­ment also high­light­ed the lack of pub­lic infor­ma­tion or offi­cial review fol­low­ing the first failed exe­cu­tion attempt and crit­i­cized the state’s plan to use ​“vir­tu­al­ly the same process and team of exe­cu­tion­ers” in their sec­ond attempt. His lawyers are also chal­leng­ing the sec­ond attempt to exe­cute Mr. Creech as unconstitutional. 

According to IDOC’s press release on its updat­ed exe­cu­tion pro­to­cols, when Mr. Creech’s exe­cu­tion team was unable to estab­lish periph­er­al IV access it did not have an ​“appro­pri­ate envi­ron­ment” to estab­lish a cen­tral line as pro­to­col then dic­tat­ed. Under the mod­i­fied pro­to­col, a pris­on­er would first be tak­en to the exe­cu­tion prepa­ra­tion room, where a med­ical team would deter­mine if periph­er­al IV access is pos­si­ble. If not, ​“a qual­i­fied physi­cian will estab­lish a cen­tral line.” Execution wit­ness­es would be able to observe the entire­ty of this process via a live, closed-cir­cuit video and audio feed. Once the prisoner’s IV access has been estab­lished, he would be trans­ferred to the execution chamber. 

“Our pre­vi­ous pro­to­cols proved effec­tive at pro­tect­ing the integri­ty of the process and ensur­ing adher­ence with 8^th amend­ment pro­tec­tions against cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment,” said IDOC Director Josh Tewalt. ​“These changes enhance the State’s abil­i­ty to car­ry out an exe­cu­tion by lethal injec­tion by ensur­ing we have the infra­struc­ture in place to estab­lish IV access.” 

Summer ren­o­va­tions to the F Block unit at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution to cre­ate an exe­cu­tion prepa­ra­tion room cost an esti­mat­ed $313,915, accord­ing to IDOC pub­lic infor­ma­tion offi­cer Sanda Kuzeta-Cerimagic. The ren­o­va­tions includ­ed imag­ing, design, and engi­neer­ing out­lined in phase one con­struc­tion to the unit but do not include phase two con­struc­tion costs, includ­ing the cre­ation of a secured facil­i­ty for exe­cu­tions via fir­ing squad, which was adopt­ed as an alter­nate exe­cu­tion method in 2023. In total, phase two con­struc­tion costs are esti­mat­ed at $952,589, as report­ed by the Idaho Capital Sun. 

If Mr. Creech’s exe­cu­tion is car­ried out, it would mark Idaho’s first exe­cu­tion in 12 years. There are 8 oth­er pris­on­ers on Idaho’s death row.