Thomas Eugene Creech is scheduled to be executed at 10 a.m. on Nov. 13. Photo courtesy of Idaho Department of Corrections/Website
Oct. 17 (UPI) — An Idaho judge has scheduled the execution of the state’s longest-serving death row inmate following a botched attempt to administer his sentence earlier this year.
Fourth Judicial District Judge Jason Scott on Wednesday issued the death warrant for Thomas Eugene Creech for 10 a.m. on Nov. 13.
The Idaho Department of Correction then served Creech, 74, the death warrant at 10 a.m. Wednesday. He was immediately moved to the Idaho Maximum Security Institution’s F Block, where his execution will take place.
IDOC Director Josh Tewalt confirmed in a statement that Creech will be put to death by lethal injection and that the department has procured the chemicals necessary to administer his sentence.
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The announcement came a day after the IDOC said it had completed modifications to its F Block necessitated by the state’s botched Feb. 28 execution of Creech.
With the septuagenarian strapped to a gurney, the medical team was unable to establish an IV line to administer the lethal cocktail, and his death was called off.
The IDOC said in a statement Tuesday that it had lacked “the appropriate environment to conduct the procedure” but over the summer, the F Block “was renovated to create an execution preparation room to establish venous access.”
It also revised its execution protocols “to reflect how the new space affects the protocols and sequence of procedures,” it said.
Creech has been convicted of killing five people, four in 1974 in Portland, Ore., and Sacramento, Calif., for which he received life sentences. The death penalty was handed down after he pleaded guilty for beating a fellow inmate to death with a sock filled with batteries in 1981.
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However, Creech has confessed to killing more than two dozen people, claiming he was 15 years old when he killed his first victim.
Following its failure in late February to kill Creech, the state’s attorney general, Raul Labrador, described it as a delay of justice.
“Today is a sad day for the families of his victims, and a continuation of the pain they have endured for almost five decades,” Labrador said in a statement. “Our duty is to seek justice for the many victims and their families who experienced the brutality and senselessness of his actions.”
Following the issuance of the death warrant Wednesday, Creech’s attorney, Deborah Czuba, said she was “heartbroken and angered” that the state would try again to execute her client before conducting an official review of what caused the state’s initial failure.
“The level of recklessness puts Idaho in a class by itself, as other states that botched executions took significant steps to examine what went wrong before trying again,” Czuba, supervising attorney for the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Defenders of Idaho, said in a statement to local media.
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“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.”
According to the IDOC, there have been three executions since Idaho enacted its death penalty statute in 1977.
There are nine people on Idaho’s death row, including Creech, who was sentenced to death in 1983, making him the state’s longest-serving death row inmate.
CALDWELL, Idaho — “Our employees were unsettled and nervous, and it took away from the work that we are doing here,” said Connie Kreps, Executive Director of WICAP, a nonprofit organization.
After a short-lived executive order issued in late January by President Donald Trump briefly paused federal funding, Treasure Valley Head Start programs were among the organizations unable to access crucial financial support, even after the order was lifted.
Governor Brad Little talks about transgender athletes, immigration and Elon Musk
“We thought we would be okay after that had happened,” said Kreps.
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The nonprofit offers childcare and early education opportunities to rural Idaho families, like Wilder resident Crystal Cortez.
“If it was taken away from us, it would be horrible,” said Cortez.
Cortez has three daughters who have excelled in the program and cannot imagine how a loss of funding would impact other Caldwell families.
“For me, my daughter has one more year before she can go to kindergarten, so what is Katalya going to do at home or at the sitter’s where she is not learning? Is she going to forget all of these things?” Cortez asked.
She has witnessed her children reach significant milestones in the program, allowing them to start kindergarten already able to identify their letters and write their names.
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“My oldest started the program when she was two months old, and I entered the program with my second daughter when she was two weeks old. My youngest also joined when I was pregnant,” Cortez explained.
Cortez is also concerned about how another funding freeze could affect the program’s educators, who dedicate their time and careers to helping local kids learn. She hopes the program will remain a critical piece of the community.
“Being able to be prepared until they’re five, who wouldn’t want that before they go to kindergarten?” she added.
BOISE, Idaho — Idaho lawmakers are considering legislation that would enforce the deportation of individuals who are living in the country illegally if they commit a crime.
But what kind of crime can get you deported?
I’m your neighborhood reporter Jessica Davis digging into what the bill specifically does and doesn’t say and asked an expert, who would this enforcement fall on?
“it’s pretty clear that this particular statute if adopted would be deemed unconstitutional under the federal constitution,” says former Attorney General David Leroy.
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HB 83 passed in the house, the legislation enforcing deportation towards immigrants who illegally live in Idaho, if they commit a crime,
According to Leroy, deportation is a federal issue, meaning States have no rule on who can be deported and why this bill, in Leroy’s words, is “unconstitutional.”
He says, “The state’s rule simply put is to cooperate with the federal government and enforce federal law not to create brand new state crimes.”
This bill states law enforcement can only enforce deportation if they’re investigating other crimes that were committed, not solely based on immigration status.
We spoke to representative Skaug, who says the focus is catching consistent criminals but infractions like speeding, jaywalking, or not stopping at a stop sign aren’t considered quote crimes.
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Rebecca De León, communications director for ACLU of Idaho, says “We are deeply concerned specifically about HB83 and we are doing everything we can to stop this bill we have engaged with lawmakers to explain to them the legal issues that this bill has.”
If this bill passes through the Senate, Leroy says it will go to court. If that happens the bill will go through the Federal District Court in Idaho, then to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal in San Francisco, and could potentially head to the Supreme Court for review.
Leroy says, “United States Supreme Court does change its precedents from time to time, but this is an area where the settled interpretation of the United States constitution is almost absolute that this is an area of supremacy for the federal government where state government laws will not be tolerated.”
On Monday House Bill 83 passed the House 61 to 9 and moved forward to the Senate.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on the legislation and what it will mean for Idahoans so stick with us right here on Idaho News Six.
Every winter, thousands of Idahoans wake up and check the snow levels at Bogus Basin. The ski resort, located 20 miles from downtown Boise, regularly posts photos of its snow marker, an upright measuring stick on top of a small platform. Every evening, staff come out and brush the platform clean so the tally can begin anew.
This rough measurement might be good enough for weekend warriors, but there’s more to snow levels than getting excited for the next powder day. Knowing how much snow and ice exists in Idaho’s mountains at a given moment is critical for farmers, rangeland administrators, water managers, flood and hydropower forecasters, anyone who lives along a river bank, and even the Department of Defense. These snow and ice measurements help anticipate growing seasons, make hydroelectric power forecasts and plan for deadly flooding.
But getting accurate snow measurements is difficult. Measuring sticks like the snow marker at Bogus Basin don’t account for snowpack density and seasonal changes thanks to melting and sublimation—the process of solid snow turning directly to vapor, which can happen below freezing.
What little information they do provide is limited to the immediate area around their platform, and snow levels can vary dramatically over the landscape. If a measurement is taken at one place in the Idaho wilderness, the snow levels could be very different just one football field’s length away.
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Researchers measuring snow properties in Idaho, like Boise State’s HP Marshall and his Cryosphere Geophysics and Remote Sensing (CryoGARS) group, have to rely on more involved methods. During the winter, the team spends many days every week out in the Idaho mountains, digging blocks out of the snow and taking detailed measurements of depth and density to estimate overall water content.
But Idaho’s mountain ranges are vast, and the team has to cover a lot of ground to get a good idea of how much snow they contain.
“It’s a total workout!” said Lindsay Stark, a geophysics Ph.D. student who Marshall supervises. “It’s fun though. You definitely feel good at the end of the day. When you open up a snow pit, you basically dig a three to six foot deep hole and then try and make it big enough for two people to comfortably work inside. So it’s a pretty big hole.”
Even with all their hard work, there are limits to how much field researchers can learn with traditional snow measuring techniques.
“In general we’re always undersampling the snow,” Marshall said. “We don’t know exactly how much there is in the mountains, since snow is only measured at relatively few locations, given the variability that exists.”
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Fortunately, Marshall is developing new methods to enhance and expand field researchers’ capabilities and improve accuracy. This year, his team is deploying radar and lidar sensors in the Idaho mountains. The radar beam travels differently through snow than air. It also travels faster or slower depending on snow density. Marshall’s team can use the radar beam’s behavior to estimate snow depth and density, in combination with measurements on the ground.
Field researchers can deploy radar sensors on towers to measure continuously, or carry it while traveling on skis or a snowmobile, or with drones when they go out to dig in the snowpack. The drone can travel anywhere within the pilot’s line of sight, taking measurements the whole way. This lets the team multiply their effectiveness, as they compare information from the drone with the snow samples they’re digging up.
Marshall and collaborators from the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab and University of Massachusetts Amherst are deploying radar and lidar sensors on planes that will make regular flights over the Idaho mountains this winter. Chartering a plane is more expensive than drones, but it offers much more spatial coverage in much less time.
These new tools are a huge step up from traditional snow measurement techniques, but Marshall has his eyes set on even higher goals. He is currently working on proposals for a satellite-based sensor.
“Right now, we don’t have the ideal sensor in space,” he said. Today, satellite-based imaging can only answer one question: is there snow or not? But if Marshall and the snow community’s work pans out, we could have satellite-deployed sensors that produce snow water resource measurements for entire regions in a fraction of the time it takes a drone or plane.
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Marshall thinks that the efforts of on-the-ground researchers will always be meaningful. But each new innovation—be it drone, plane or satellite sensors—makes those efforts more effective, and delivers dividends each spring when the snow begins to melt.