Idaho prepares to execute a death row prisoner
Creech’s Last Attempt at a High-Security Execution: After 10 Years and a Year Later, The Laws Changed
The 73-year-old will be taken to the Idaho maximum security prison on Wednesday morning and asked if he wanted a little sedative to calm him before his execution. Then, at 10 a.m. local time, they will bring him into the execution chamber and strap him to a padded medical table.
But judges in four courts who reviewed the petitions so far have found no grounds for leniency. The high court will be asked to weigh in on the claim that prosecutors lied during his clemency hearing so the execution can be put on hold.
Volunteers trained in medical care will insert a catheter into one of Creech’s veins. He will be granted a chance to say his final words and a spiritual advisor will pray with him. Then the state will inject a drug intended to kill the man who has been convicted of five murders in three states and is suspected in several more.
Executions became rare in the following decades. Since the 1970s, more than forty people have been sentenced to death row but only four of them are executed by lethal injection.
Jensen’s family members described him as a gentle soul who loved hunting and being outdoors during Creech’s clemency hearing last month. Jensen’s daughter was just 4 years old when he died, and she spoke about how painful it was to grow up without a father, piecing together everything she knows about her dad from other people’s descriptions and memories.
At his clemency hearing, the deputy prosecutor disagreed with him that Creech doesn’t always act friendly with officers. But she said he is a psychopath — a man who can be charming and likeable but who lacks remorse and empathy for others.
Creech’s execution will be the second in the U.S. this year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The first was in Alabama last month, when Kenneth Eugene Smith became the first death row inmate to be executed using nitrogen gas. Smith seemed to be conscious for several minutes and appeared to be in agony for at least two minutes after he died, but Alabama officials said the method would be humane and predicted death would happen within a few minutes.
Ivan Cantu was sentenced to die for his cousin James Mosqueda’s death and for Amy Kitchen’s death. Cantu has maintained he is innocent.
According to the Idaho Department of Correction, there are seven people remaining on Idaho’s death row. In the past 50 years, there have been a few people who have died from natural causes, and at least two who were acquitted of their crimes. Many others have had their sentences reduced on appeal.
Keith Eugene Wells, 31, was executed in 1994 for the murders of John Justad and Brandi Rains committed in Boise just four years earlier; he had given up his appeals and demanded to be put to death. Paul Rhoades was executed in Idaho for his part in the murder of two people. Rhoades was also convicted of killing Nolan Haddon that year, and authorities said they suspected him in other deaths as well. Richard Albert Leavitt was executed in 2012 for the 1984 murder of Danette Jean Elg in eastern Idaho.
Legislation that would have added the death penalty for people found guilty of lewd conduct with a child never made it through the House of Representatives.
In court documents filed late last week, Idaho officials said Creech’s spiritual adviser would be allowed to stand next to Creech with a hand on his shoulder during the execution. The Episcopal bishop will also be able to silently pray over Creech but won’t be allowed to hold his hand or make any noise once the administration of the lethal injection chemical begins, according to the court document. Creech will also be allowed to wear a crucifix, according to the document, and his wife will be seated in the witness area where he can make eye contact with her.
In the US, 73-year-old death row inmate John Creech has been given a sedative before his scheduled execution on Wednesday. Creech was sentenced to death by lethal injection for the murder of a 22-year-old man in 1994. Creech’s spiritual adviser will be allowed to stand next to him with a hand on his shoulder during the execution.