Idaho Parole Board Grants Clemency Hearing for 73-Year-Old Death Row Prisoner Facing Execution

On October 18, 2023, the Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole delayed the sched­uled exe­cu­tion for Thomas Creech in order to pro­vide him with a full clemen­cy hear­ing. A date for the hear­ing has not yet been sched­uled. An Ada County, Idaho judge pre­vi­ous­ly issued a death war­rant for Mr. Creech, who has been on death row for near­ly 44 years, set­ting his exe­cu­tion for November 8, 2023. The Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) announced that they have secured the appro­pri­ate drugs to car­ry out a lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tion, despite hav­ing had issues obtain­ing the drugs in the past.

Mr. Creech is serv­ing a life sen­tence for a dou­ble mur­der com­mit­ted in 1974 and was lat­er con­vict­ed of killing a fel­low pris­on­er in 1981. After plead­ing guilty to the in-prison mur­der, Mr. Creech, now 73, was sen­tenced to death and has now spent more than half his life on Idaho’s death row. The state has not exe­cut­ed any­one since 2012 but has set three exe­cu­tion dates for Gerald Pizzuto since 2021, despite not hav­ing the drugs required by Idaho’s lethal injec­tion guide­lines. In response to lim­it­ed drug access, Governor Brad Little signed leg­is­la­tion in March 2023 that would per­mit use of the fir­ing squad if the state was unable to obtain lethal injection drugs.

Mr. Creech’s attor­neys have filed a peti­tion for clemen­cy with the state parole board to com­mute his death sen­tence to life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. The peti­tion out­lines the rea­sons why Mr. Creech should have a full clemen­cy hear­ing and his sen­tence should be com­mut­ed. Retired Judge Robert Newhouse, who orig­i­nal­ly sen­tenced Mr. Creech to death, told attor­neys for Mr. Creech that ​“no pur­pose would be served by exe­cut­ing [him] now” after more than 40 years of incar­cer­a­tion. For Judge Newhouse, exe­cut­ing Mr. Creech would ​“just be an act of vengeance,” rather than one of justice.

Former Ada County Prosecutor Jim Harris pros­e­cut­ed Mr. Creech for Jensen’s mur­der. He told the Idaho Statesman that he gen­er­al­ly agreed with Judge Newhouse’s per­spec­tive because the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem in place has for decades shown itself to be inef­fec­tive — and a sub­stan­tial drain on tax­pay­ers. DA Harris also said he didn’t oppose Mr. Creech receiv­ing a clemen­cy review. ​“He’s an old man now, but he’s still Tom Creech,” Harris said. ​“I agree with the judge that as long as he’s care­ful­ly watched, there’s no real eth­i­cal rea­son to kill him now. By the same token, I’m still con­cerned he might kill someone else.”

The clemen­cy peti­tion describes how Mr. Creech has befriend­ed pris­on­ers and prison staff, and out­lines sto­ries of his acts of kind­ness, lead­er­ship, and reli­gios­i­ty. The peti­tion argues that by car­ry­ing out Mr. Creech’s exe­cu­tion, the state is unnec­es­sar­i­ly trau­ma­tiz­ing indi­vid­u­als who will be respon­si­ble for see­ing some­one they have grown to care about exe­cut­ed. Many for­mer IDOC employ­ees con­firmed Mr. Creech’s exem­plary prison record, as well as his respect and coop­er­a­tive­ness with guards and prison staff. Importantly, Mr. Creech has expressed great remorse for tak­ing anoth­er life. His ​“remorse is not the prod­uct of a new­found desire for clemen­cy,” accord­ing to the peti­tion, ​“but rather a long­stand­ing con­vic­tion borne of deep reflec­tion” and Christian faith.

In a signed dec­la­ra­tion writ­ten just a day before his death war­rant was issued, Mr. Creech said ​“I regret killing David Jensen more than any­thing I’ve ever done in my life,” he said. ​“I’ve changed a lot since 1981. I’m not the per­son I was. I believe I’ve touched a lot of hearts in the last 40 years. If my sen­tence were com­mut­ed to life in prison with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole, I would do my best to con­tin­ue hav­ing a pos­i­tive impact on people’s lives.”