BOISE, Idaho – Idaho’s longest-serving death row inmate is trying several paths to stop his execution, scheduled for mid-November.
The state has issued a death warrant for Thomas Eugene Creech. He’s scheduled to die on November 13.
Creech is the only Idaho inmate to survive an execution attempt. Prison officials tried for an hour last February to establish an IV through which to insert lethal injection drugs.
That’s one of the reasons Creech says his life should be spared, arguing that trying a second time to execute him constitutes legal double jeopardy.
Creech was convicted of two murders in Idaho in 1974 and sentenced to death. That sentence was later reduced to life in prison.
While in prison, he murdered a fellow inmate named David Jensen. It’s that murder for which Creech is now sentenced to die. He’s also a suspect in several murders for which he has not been charged.
Creech is pursuing two paths to stop the execution, one through the federal court system and the other through the Idaho Supreme Court.