Idaho's longest-serving death row Inmate scheduled for execution after botched attempt

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.

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.

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.

"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.