Originally published July 25 by IdahoReports .Five months after the failed execution of Thomas Creech, a man on Idaho’s death row, his attorneys are challenging the judge who refused to recuse herself based on a potential friendship with the Ada County Prosecutor.
On Feb. 28, the Idaho Department of Correction called off the execution attempt of Creech after its medical team could not establish an IV line to execute him by lethal injection. Creech, 73, has been on death row since 1983 for the beating death of fellow inmate David Jensen in 1981. Jensen is the fifth murder conviction on Creech’s record.
Creech’s attorneys asked the federal court in a July 19 filing for a stay of proceedings until the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals can rule on the issue.
CLAIMS AGAINST JUDGECreech’s attorneys claim that U.S. District Judge Amanda Brailsford should have recused herself from a February complaint due to her relationship with Ada County Prosecutor Jan Bennetts.
On Feb. 8, Creech asked the court to suspend his execution until litigation was complete. Later that month, Brailsford denied a preliminary injunction, and with all stays denied, IDOC moved forward the Feb. 28 execution attempt.
Attorneys for Creech claim when Brailsford was nominated to the federal bench in 2023, she indicated on a Senate questionnaire that she only recused herself once while on the state judiciary, about four years prior, because a party had sued Bennetts, “who is a personal friend,” according to the complaint.
The filing also cites a speech Bennetts gave at Brailsford’s investiture to the state bench in 2019, during which Bennetts said Brailsford “is the kind of friend you feel incredibly fortunate to find,” someone with whom she “continued to share lunches,” and “the kind of friend for whom I would drop everything if she needed me.” At the same event, Brailsford said Bennetts was her “dear friend.”
The Idaho Judicial Council outlines the judicial code of conduct, including personal relationships and impartiality. Judges are required to perform their duties without bias or prejudice and must not be swayed by family or social influence nor by public clamor. The code of conduct states “A judge shall not convey or permit others to convey the impression that any person or organization is in a position to improperly influence or coerce the judge.”
In a July 8 response, Brailsford said she did not believe her impartiality was compromised, and explained why she didn’t recuse herself. Brailsford and Bennetts both worked as law clerks under Judge Thomas Nelson of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals from 1993-1994. But since the clerkship, Brailsford said the two have lost touch.
“We did not pursue a personal friendship independent of our shared clerkship experience,” Brailsford wrote. “For example, since Ms. Bennett’s clerkship concluded, she has never been to my home nor I to hers. We have not taken vacations together, celebrated holidays together, or shared family occasions together. We have not regularly communicated either by correspondence or by telephone, and in fact, we have rarely communicated.
“Occasionally, however, I have seen Ms. Bennetts at professional events including, for example, at Idaho State Bar events, at a picnic Judge Nelson organized for his former law clerks, and at a judicial memorial service for him in 2011,” she wrote. “None of these encounters were planned.”
The Ada County Prosecutor’s Office also defended Brailsford.
“All judges have ethical standards and guidelines they must navigate every day. These decisions and opinions deserve deference,” wrote Emily Lowe, spokesperson for the Ada County Prosecutor’s Office. “It is not uncommon for convicted felons, particularly those convicted of murders facing lengthy sentences, to attack everyone in the system. Those tactics should not be distractions to holding offenders accountable.”
CLAIMS AGAINST ADA COUNTYAfter hearing arguments on Creech’s commutation request on Jan. 19, the commission later voted 3-3 to grant a commutation recommendation. A tie vote means the request failed.
Creech’s attorneys filed an amended complaint on March 15 against the Commissions of Pardons and Parole and the Ada County Prosecutor, claiming that the Ada County deputy prosecutor presented false evidence to the Commission during Creech’s commutation hearing. The prosecution said Creech was responsible for the murder of Daniel Walker, in San Bernadino, California, but Creech was never charged with that death, according to the filing. Creech’s attorneys claim the Ada County prosecutor told the Commission that Creech “got away with” Walker’s death.
Deputy prosecutor Jill Longhurst, not Bennetts, presented arguments on behalf of the Ada County Prosecutor in that hearing, though Bennetts did attend.
After the hearing, the prosecutor’s office put out a press release saying, “Earlier this week, a cold case was solved in San Bernardino, California when after law enforcement’s thorough investigation, they determined Mr. Creech had murdered Daniel A. Walker in October 1974,” according to Creech’s complaint. The press release also included a quote attributed to Bennetts, saying she appreciated her team’s work.
Creech’s attorneys stressed that their client had not been charged or convicted for that crime and allege the Ada County Prosecutor’s Office violated Creech’s right to due process by presenting false evidence.
They request the Commission provide Creech with a new commutation hearing and declare the old commutation hearing unconstitutional.
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