By Ruth Brown, Idaho Reports
House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee members questioned the Director of the Idaho Department of Correction Josh Tewalt on Thursday about the failed execution of Thomas Creech.
IDOC called off Creech’s execution, scheduled for 10 a.m. Feb. 28, after nearly an hour of unsuccessful attempts by the medical team to establish an IV line for the lethal injection chemicals.
Creech is on death row for the 1981 beating death of fellow inmate David Jensen. He was convicted of four additional murders, and has confessed to several more.
During his testimony on Thursday, Tewalt said the medical team made attempts at eight different locations, in Creech’s arms, hands, legs and feet, echoing his comments from a Wednesday press conference.
“I think it’s important to note my confidence at 9:59 yesterday morning and 11 yesterday did not change one bit in our medical team,” Tewalt said. He explained the same medical team regularly establishes IVs.
“That is a very different scenario than what we saw yesterday, particularly when we talk about the quality they encountered,” Tewalt said. “Unequivocally, they made the right call.”
Tewalt said the worst thing the state could have done was proceed with unreliable IV lines, potentially violating the Eighth Amendment’s protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
Committee chairman Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, asked if the medical team had examined Creech before the execution, and if they had tried an IV in the neck.
Tewalt explained that the state is only allowed to access a peripheral vein, often in the hands and arms, rather than a central vein. Central veins are the large veins in the neck, chest or groin and are usually accessed only during emergency medical situations.
“It’s a very different legal threshold that we have to establish where we are not practicing medicine with the intent to save a life,” Tewalt said. “In fact, it’s the exact opposite.”
Tewalt said after the medical team examined Creech prior to the scheduled execution, they were confident they would be able to access a vein.
“What the examination couldn’t tell was the quality,” Tewalt said. “They have to establish an IV that they have confidence in will be able to deliver the quantity of chemicals necessary for lethal injection, without having other adverse effects that will and has led to botched executions noted across the country.”
Tewalt said during the hour-long attempt to execute Creech, the team thought the veins they accessed would collapse.
Committee members also asked about using the firing squad as a backup execution method. In addition to adding the firing squad as a secondary option for execution if lethal injection chemicals aren’t available, the 2023 legislature appropriated $850,000 in funding to build a firing squad location. IDOC has not yet begun construction.
Rep. Kenny Wroten, R-Nampa, asked Tewalt about using a mechanized gun, rather than actual humans to pull a trigger during a firing squad execution. Tewalt said IDOC has considered that possibility.
Skaug also asked about the firing squad.
“Is it possible to set up a simple site with berms of dirt out there in the desert at your facility, fencing places off for witness areas behind the firing squad?” Skaug asked Tewalt. “Is that not possible and still be within the bounds of the law?”
Tewalt said he wanted to ensure IDOC could control all variables.
“We continue to try to work through that process of where best and how to carry that out,” Tewalt said. “We have received word from the associations that represent architecture and engineering expertise that we needed to engineer the initial footprint, that they have no interest or willingness to participate in a project that is for execution.”
He said IDOC also has concerns about stopping high-velocity ammunition to prevent any collateral damage.
Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, asked Tewalt if there was a chance that his team intentionally couldn’t find a vein.
“Could politics be involved in the reason this did not happen?” Scott asked.
Tewalt said some members on Thursday’s team participated in the executions of Paul Rhoades and Richard Leavitt in 2011 and 2012, and reiterated his trust in the medical team.
“Every single member on our medical team member is there for right reasons,” Tewalt said. “They are there because they believe it is a duty and it is a process that deserves to be treated with dignity.”
Rep. Chris Allgood, R-Caldwell, asked Tewalt if Creech did anything to make it harder for the team.
“That’s inconsistent with our experience with him, particularly in the last week or two,” Tewalt said.
Creech was under 24-hour a day direct supervision, Tewalt explained, adding he had no reason to believe he tried to stop the medical team by purposely dehydrating himself or taking other measures that would make it harder to establish an IV line. Tewalt’s statement is consistent with a Wednesday morning statement from IDOC saying Creech remained cooperative in the hours leading up to his scheduled execution.
Creech’s death warrant expired Wednesday night, but he remains on death row in IDOC custody.
Idaho Reports spoke to media witnesses Scott McIntosh and Roland Beres about their experience Wednesday morning, and what may happen next. Idaho Reports airs Friday nights at 8 p.m. on Idaho Public Television, and is available online at idahoptv.org/idahoreports.