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Idaho’s longest-serving death row inmate is pleading for another clemency hearing after the previous one ended in a tie vote, yet the state governor has already declared he has “zero intention of taking any action that would halt or delay” the execution.
Thomas Eugene Creech, 73, was sentenced to death over four decades ago after he was convicted of killing his fellow inmate, 23-year-old David Dale Jensen, by beating him to death with a sock filled with batteries and stomping on his face and neck, the Ada County Prosecutor’s office said in a news release.
Mr Creech, who was already serving four life sentences at the time, pleaded guilty to murdering Jensen.
The prosecutor’s office branded Mr Creech as a “serial killer”, who has had five murder convictions, one in California, one in Oregon and three in Idaho. He has also been established as the killer of an additional six victims and has also admitted to killing at least 40 people.
A state parole board voted 3-3 last month on a request sent by Mr Creech to have his sentence changed to life without parole after one of its members recused himself from the case; now Mr Creech is asking for a new hearing after it ended in a tie, according to the Associated Press.
In Idaho, a majority of the board must vote in favour of clemency in order for the recommendation to be sent to the governor, yet the state rules say that the governor can also overrule these recommendations.
The governor of Idaho, Brad Little, said in a statement last week that it is his duty to “ensure that lawful criminal sentences are carried out”.
“As governor, I have zero intention of taking any action that would halt or delay Creech’s execution,” he said.
“His lawful and just sentence must be carried out as ordered by the court. Justice has been delayed long enough.”
Creech was put on death row in 1981 after beating a fellow inmate to death
(Idaho Department of Corrections)
Mr Creech’s attorneys have argued that having one board member absent was unfair, as an inmate would have had to convince a majority to get a recommendation, but instead, he had to try and convince two-thirds, the outlet said.
The said one member should have stepped aside, or another one should have been appointed to fill the seventh place.
It was only last month that Mr Creech was also determined to have killed Daniel A Walker in 1974 in California, which has sat as a cold case until it was deemed to have been solved after a law enforcement investigation, the prosecutor’s office said.
Mr Creech has stunned prosecutors and judges for years due to the severity of his crimes and confessions.
In 1993, former US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote in an opinion that Mr Creech’s case “could not be more chilling”.
His clemency hearing also saw him being depicted as a sociopath with no regard for human life by Ada County deputy prosecutor Jill Longhurst, according to the Associated Press.
However, his defence team has tried to show that Mr Creech is a changed man, and the string of killings that have been connected to the death row inmate has been blown out of proportion.
The Federal Defender Services of Idaho, which is representing Mr Creech, said last month that “statements that Mr Creech made to law enforcement officials decades ago under unclear circumstances and during a time period in which police officers from around the country were spoon-feeding Mr Creech information to try to clear cases based on the fantasy that he committed 50 murders,” according to NBC.
A video created to support his clemency also added Mr Creech was “remorseful and sorry” for the crimes he committed, and if he could “change it all” he would.
The video also included comments from a mental health clinician from the prison saying he was a “model inmate” and even an endorsement from the judge who sentenced him to death, saying that after 40 years on death row, executing him now would “just be an act of vengeance”.
“Seeking the death penalty in a capital case is not a decision that is taken lightly by any prosecutor’s office,” the prosecutor’s office wrote in their January news release.
“The decision can be made only after a careful examination of the statutory factors as applied to the facts and circumstances. The facts and circumstances in Mr Creech’s case warrant the death penalty to this day.”
An execution date for Mr Creech has been scheduled for 28 February 2024, Idaho News 6 said.
