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Supreme Court rejects Creech cruel and unusual punishment argument

A white table bolted into a carpeted floor with black straps on the arm rests and towards one end of the table. There is a wooden podium and a wall of windows with grey curtains on the edges. There is a man standing on the other side of the windows.
Jessie L. Bonner
/
Associated Press
FILE - In this Oct. 20, 2011 file photo, the execution chamber at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution is shown as Security Institution Warden Randy Blades look on in Boise, Idaho. Idaho could bring back firing squads as a method of execution under legislation introduced by a panel of lawmakers Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023.

The Idaho Supreme Court has ruled that a second attempt to execute an Idaho death row inmate would not violate his Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

The Wednesday decision affirms an earlier district court decision, rejecting an appeal by Thomas Creech.

Creech, 74, survived his first execution attempt in February after the execution team failed to establish vein access and called off the execution. A November death warrant expired due to a separate stay from the federal court.

After the February attempt, the Idaho Department of Correction established a new policy that would allow the execution team to access a central vein for lethal injection administration.

A central vein is a major vein in the body, usually in the chest, neck or groin. Access to a central vein requires the insertion of a catheter. A peripheral vein, like those located in the arm or hand, is closer to the skin’s surface and is commonly used for tasks like a blood draws or establishing an IV line on a patient.

Creech is on death row for the 1981 beating death of fellow inmate David Jensen in Ada County. He claimed another execution attempt would amount to cruel and unusual punishment, violating his Eighth Amendment Constitutional rights.

The Idaho Supreme Court unanimously sided with the district court, writing “Creech has not alleged that the state will inflict unnecessary pain during an execution using central line IV access. Instead, he provides anecdotal evidence of difficulties encountered by other states during central line insertions.”

The state has not yet issued a new death warrant for Creech, as the federal stay is still in place.

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