February 28, 2024 will always be a day that Thomas Creech will never forget. One has to wonder if anyone present near Thomas will forget the day, either.
On that day, Thomas Creech faced a deeply traumatic ordeal during what was supposed to be his execution. Creech is a 73-year-old inmate who was on Idaho’s death row. He was strapped to a gurney at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution. As per the process, medical personnel attempted to administer a lethal injection.
However, nothing was going as planned that day. For nearly 42 minutes, they failed to establish a viable intravenous (IV) line. They attempted to access his arms, hands, legs, and ankles. Ankles are the most unusual and most invasive site for the IV line.
That’s why when they began probing his ankles, Creech believed he was moments from death.
Ultimately, the execution was called off. The incident has raised serious ethical and procedural concerns. There have been questions about the state’s ability to carry out executions humanely and effectively.
I am horrified, but not surprised, to report that Idaho failed in its attempted execution of Thomas Creech, after failing eight times to establish an IV line. I warned of this “unacceptable risk of error” last night. https://t.co/uO5WxmbxNN pic.twitter.com/3u5wgq5ZjP
— Chris “Law Dork” Geidner (@chrisgeidner) February 28, 2024
Thomas Creech’s history is full of violence and tragedy. He has been convicted of multiple murders in his lifetime so far. He had been convicted of killing his fellow inmate by hitting him with a sock full of batteries. This crime got him his death sentence in 1981.
Thomas Creech also claimed responsibility for 42 murders across the country. However, he retracted most of those statements later. So far, he has acknowledged committing seven murders.
As he explains, some of these came from personal trauma, including the loss of his ex-wife. He has spent over 50 years incarcerated. All of those years, he has been on death row, just waiting for his day of execution.
Thomas got married to LeAnn Creech while he was still incarcerated. This relationship gave him the emotional support he had been missing in life. LeAnn has spoken publicly about the pain of preparing to lose her husband to execution and then being left in limbo after the botched attempt. Their bond sheds light on the human side of life on death row—where love, grief, and hope persist despite the looming shadow of death.
The failed execution brought haunting confusion for the Creech regarding his future. He claims he wondered if he was already dead or trapped in a surreal version of the afterlife. The failed attempt of execution inflicted a deeper psychological trauma. This was a near-death experience, and the marks of the trauma will always remain on his mind and personality.
According to Thomas Creech, a serial killer and professed satanist, he belonged to a Seattle-area cult with Ted Bundy. Meanwhile *another* serial killer Gary Addison Taylor, who lived close to the ritual house ID’d by Creech, had a confirmed interest in Nazism and witchcraft. https://t.co/zxiO1ezuLn pic.twitter.com/liRRUg30aj
— George from CAVDEF (@CAVDEF_George) October 13, 2024
This has worsened his already strained mental state after decades in solitary confinement.
Deborah Czuba is one of Creech’s attorneys and was present as a witness for the execution attempt. She described the immense psychological toll it took on everyone present. The prolonged suffering and uncertainty during the process have once again sparked debate over the humane treatment of prisoners. Especially those who are sentenced to death. She emphasized the lasting trauma such experiences can cause, and that’s not only for inmates but for legal teams and prison staff as well.
Here is the federal district court’s opinion staying Thomas Creech’s Nov. 13 execution. It also sets a briefing schedule to address the Idaho courts’ denial of his challenge to the state’s second attempt to execute him following an earlier failed attempt. https://t.co/PetD2tQtcR https://t.co/xCLp0jrlsU pic.twitter.com/3m7dPkn2j8
— Robert Dunham (@RDunhamDP) November 7, 2024
Creech’s legal team is now seeking to block any future execution attempts. They have argued that another procedure would violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Creech’s experience has reignited national debates over capital punishment. There have been similar incidents. This included the recent firing squad execution in South Carolina and previous botched lethal injections in Oklahoma and Arizona. These point to systemic flaws in the system. These events are proof that there is a need for serious reform in execution protocols. Or maybe there should be reconsideration of the practice altogether.
