While Thomas Creech execution is delayed, Idaho anti-death penalty group fights | Opinion
The planned Nov. 13 execution of Thomas Creech, Idaho’s longest-serving death row inmate, has been delayed, giving members of a local anti-death penalty group a little more time to state their case.
A new group, Idahoans Against the Death Penalty, held a small gathering Friday afternoon in front of the Idaho State Capitol.
“There is a group of us from across the state of Idaho that recognizes that execution is not the only way to keep Idahoans safe from murderers,” the Rev. Karen Hernandez, of the United Methodist Church, said at the gathering of about a dozen people.
Hernandez noted that the state plans to spend nearly $1 million to build a facility that would accommodate death by firing squad, a method for execution approved by the state Legislature in 2023 in case lethal injection is not possible.
“This money could be much better spent supporting the families of crime victims or the victims themselves,” Hernandez said. “That money could be better spent intervening in the lives of youths who are headed toward a life of crime or violence.”
Hernandez was joined by Bishop Meggan Manlove, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, who noted that her church passed a resolution last year opposing not only the use of the firing squad, but all forms of state-implemented executions.
“My family of Lutheran Christians believes we are called to respond to violent crime in the restorative way taught by Jesus and shown by his actions,” Manlove said. “Restorative justice involves addressing the hurt of each person whose life has been touched by violent crime. This approach makes the community safer for all.”
I tend to buy into the arguments that the state should not have the power and authority to take the life of a human being, that our criminal justice system has proved to be imperfect, and those imperfections can lead to — and have led to — innocent people landing on death row.
There is also ample evidence of botched executions that easily qualify as cruel and unusual punishment. The seemingly peaceful drug cocktail used to kill people by lethal injection may actually cause suffering not seen by outside witnesses.
I also welcome the Christian argument, as was raised by a woman at Friday’s gathering who identified herself as a Catholic who believes in the sanctity of life — a belief that she noted is contrary to the death penalty.
But this group has an uphill climb, especially in Idaho, which identifies as overwhelmingly Christian, but by most accounts is also heavily in favor of the death penalty.
The group has a website, idahoansagainstthedeathpenalty.org, and is urging the public to sign a letter to Gov. Brad Little and the state Legislature calling for an end to the death penalty in Idaho.
The group also is asking members of the public to sign petitions calling on the governor to grant clemency to Creech and another death row inmate, Gerald Pizzuto. Creech’s petition has more than 11,000 signatures and Pizzuto’s has more than 12,000.
Hernandez said the group isn’t working with any legislators at the moment, but present at Friday’s gathering was Amy Dundon, legislative strategist for the ACLU of Idaho.
She noted legal concerns about drug secrecy, botched executions and the failed execution of Creech in February, when the prison team failed to find a vein suitable to establish an IV for the lethal injection.
“We know that there is no method of execution that doesn’t carry an intolerably high risk of cruel and unusual punishment,” Dundon said.
What about the victims’ families?
Coincidentally, the Idahoans Against the Death Penalty event was at the exact same time as an event taking place inside the Capitol marking the 30th anniversary of the passage of the Crime Victims’ Rights Amendment to the Idaho Constitution.
The backdrop of Friday’s anti-death penalty event was a line of police cars in support of the amendment.
I asked about the victims and victims’ families.
One of my last hurdles that I have in fully opposing the death penalty is empathy with victims’ families and the recognition that if my wife or two sons — or any other family member — were brutally killed by someone like Joseph Duncan or Thomas Creech, I’d be hard-pressed to not want the death penalty.
Brandi Jensen, the daughter of Creech’s last victim, David Dale Jensen, has unreservedly supported execution for Creech.
“Thomas Eugene Creech is a manipulative serial killer — with a fan club — and he murdered my dad, David Dale Jensen,” Brandi Jensen wrote in a prepared statement in February in support of executing Creech. “My dad was more than just a father to me. He was a gentle Idaho man loved by many, he was kind, smart, fun, handsome and talented in so many ways. He was a father cheated from a life, a man who loved a simple life and simple things. He was the kindest, most generous, and most loving person.”
Other family members of other victims of Creech provided impact statements and letters supporting Creech’s execution, according to Brandi Jensen and the Ada County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
So I still struggle with the idea of telling family members that the death penalty is off the table. If it were me, would I be willing to accept that?
But a couple of things resonate with me.
One member of the Idahoans Against the Death Penalty who was at Friday’s event said that a victim’s family calling for the death penalty is an emotional response, not necessarily a moral one.
Indeed, you often can still hear the anger when victims’ families call for the death penalty, even some 40 years later.
“My dad did not deserve to die in such a brutal and senseless way,” Brandi Jensen wrote. “He was taken away from me and from everyone who loved him by a cowardly and evil act of violence. I am devastated and angry that someone could do this to him… It’s time to end this 43 year-long nightmare.”
Hernandez said an execution doesn’t necessarily bring closure, and it doesn’t change the fact that a loved one was brutally murdered.
“Once there’s been one death, there’s no justice that can fix that,” Hernandez said. “Instead, we have to go forward seeking compassion and grace.”
Hernandez said not all family members of victims support the death penalty.
“Accountability is absolutely appropriate,” Hernandez said. “And we’re holding murderers accountable, but there are ways to do that without resorting to execution.”
As one member suggested, it should be “death by incarceration, rather than death by execution.”
I, myself, was hoping to get more clarity on the death penalty when I signed up to be a witness to Creech’s execution in February, thinking that if I watch a person die at the hands of the state, I would decide one way or the other.
I’ve signed up again to be a media witness at the second attempt at executing Creech, but it remains to be seen when or whether that might happen, and whether I would be selected.
In the meantime, I’m increasingly persuaded by the arguments presented by Idahoans Against the Death Penalty, even while I keep in mind the victims’ families.
“When the state is seeking to execute someone for a second time, that is no longer about his crimes, that is about us,” Hernandez said. “That’s not about justice, that’s about Idahoans, those of us who are taxpayers and who are the state seeking to be cruel and carry out vengeance. That’s not who I am. That’s not the Idahoans I know. We can do better.”
