Idaho prisoner Thomas Creech's execution delayed. Federal judge says he'll issue stay

BOISE, Idaho — A federal judge said Tuesday that he would issue a stay of execution for Idaho death row prisoner Thomas Creech, who was scheduled to be put to death next week after a failed attempt to do so earlier this year.

U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow, a senior judge from the District of Arizona, said at an afternoon hearing that it was necessary to wait on the Idaho Supreme Court’s ruling on similar arguments before the federal case could proceed. Snow, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, subbed in on Creech’s three active federal appeals because of potential conflicts of interest for Idaho’s federal judges.

“I’m not going to rush justice in a case like this,” Snow said at the hearing, which Creech attended by phone from Idaho’s max prison south of Boise. “Even if the (Idaho court’s) opinion came down today, I would be inclined to stay this matter for at least 20 days.”

As of Tuesday at 5 p.m., Snow’s stay order had yet to post to a public website for federal court filings. An Idaho Department of Correction spokesperson told the Idaho Statesman that the prison system was aware of the verbal, but was awaiting the judge’s written order to take any action.

The Idaho Attorney General’s Office, represented at the hearing by LaMont Anderson, the state’s chief capital deputy attorney general, opposed the issuance of a stay. A stay, or pause, would mean the standing death warrant for Creech, obtained on Oct. 16, would exceed its 30-day expiration date, Anderson acknowledged to the court.

Creech’s attorneys with the nonprofit Federal Defender Services of Idaho have alleged in the case that a second attempt to execute Creech would violate his constitutional rights, including against cruel and unusual punishment. A similar appeal from Creech’s state level public defenders sits with Idaho’s high court.

An Idaho district judge dismissed the case in September. Creech’s state public defenders appealed to the Idaho Supreme Court, where it has awaited a decision from the five justices for more than a week.

Both Anderson and attorney Mary Spears, who represents Creech in the case, told the court Tuesday that they were surprised a ruling had yet to come down from the Idaho Supreme Court. In denying a stay of execution in that case, the justices also decided they would rule on it based only on legal briefs rather than hold a hearing for oral arguments.

The Federal Defender Services of Idaho declined a Statesman request for comment Tuesday.

Creech, 74, is Idaho’s longest-serving death row prisoner, and will have been imprisoned for 50 years as of Thursday. Creech has been convicted of five murders, including three Idaho victims, and prosecutors suspect he committed several others across the western U.S.

This death warrant obtained by the Ada County Prosecutor’s Office was the 13th since Creech was sentenced to death in 1976. It scheduled his execution by lethal injection for Nov. 13.

Creech survived a planned execution by lethal injection in February. After about an hour, the prison’s team was unable to locate a suitable vein to establish an IV for the lethal chemicals, and state prison leadership called it off. Ada County Prosecutor Jan Bennetts and Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador both attended as state witnesses at the failed execution.

Creech became the first prisoner in Idaho to survive an execution, and just the sixth in modern U.S. history to survive one by lethal injection, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Through her office spokesperson, Bennetts, who is up for reelection Tuesday, declined to comment and directed the Statesman to the AG’s office because it is handling the federal case. A requests for comment received no response from the AG’s office.