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Idaho delays execution of serial killer Thomas Creech after failed lethal injection attempts
Idaho on Wednesday delayed the execution of convicted serial killer Thomas Eugene Creech, one of the nation’s longest-serving death row inmates, after a failed attempt at lethal injection. Creech, who has been convicted of five murders, was sentenced to die for the killing of a fellow prisoner with a battery-filled sock in 1981.
Idaho Department of Correction Sanda Kuzeta-Cerimagic said in a statement “the medical team could not establish an IV line, rendering the execution unable to proceed.” The Associated Press reported that three medical team members tried seven or eight times to establish an IV in both of Creech’s arms and legs.
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The U.S. Supreme Court denied three requests from the 73-year-old Creech for a stay of execution Wednesday morning. The execution would mark Idaho’s first in more than a decade.
Creech, an Ohio native who has been on death row at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution for nearly half a century, was convicted of five murders in three states and is suspected of at least half-dozen other killings. According to court filings, Creech admitted to killing or participating in the murders of at least 26 people.
Just last month, investigators in California closed a decades-old cold case in San Bernardino County, connecting Daniel Walker’s 1974 murder to Creech, CBS Los Angeles reported.
While he was in prison, Creech bludgeoned a fellow inmate, David Jensen, with a sock filled with batteries, and pleaded guilty to the murder. He was sentenced to death by a judge in 1982, who found after several resentencings that “the protection of society demands that Thomas Eugene Creech receive the death penalty.”
Creech’s attorneys told the Supreme Court in one request filed Monday that his execution would take place “in the face of unprecedented secrecy … a secrecy unmatched by any other state in the United States and one usually reserved for third world countries.”
They asked the justices to block his execution while they consider a separate request to hear his case, in which he argued that the state presented false evidence at a clemency hearing in 2023 in violation of due process.
Creech’s request for the Supreme Court’s intervention arrived days after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit rejected a challenge to his method of execution. Creech’s lawyers had argued that the state failed to provide sufficient information about the source of the lethal injection drug pentobarbital, and suggested it may have been obtained by a pharmaceutical company that went out of business last year and recalled the product. His lawyers also warned that the pentobarbital may have come from other “unreliable sources.”
In appealing the 9th Circuit’s decision, Creech’s attorneys said “the devil is in the details, and the details about what the State has procured — the actual, physical drug — are of critical importance.”
The Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole had opposed Creech’s effort at the Supreme Court, and Jensen’s relatives opposed Creech’s bid for clemency.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Creech would be just the fourth person executed in Idaho since 1976.
Despite his horrific crimes, Creech was regarded as a well-behaved and polite inmate who established long-term relationships with prison staffers at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, corrections director Josh Tewalt told the Associated Press.
“I don’t want to be dismissive of what he did and the countless people who were impacted by that in real significant ways,” Tewalt told the AP. “At the same time, you also can’t be dismissive of the effect it’s going to have on people who have established a relationship with him. On Thursday, Tom’s not going to be there. You know he’s not coming back to that unit — that’s real. It would be really difficult to not feel some sort of emotion about that.”
During his clemency hearing, Ada County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jill Longhurst agreed that Creech could be friendly, the AP reported, but she said he is a psychopath — capable of being likable but lacking remorse and empathy for others.
NEW YORK — Former New York Gov. David Paterson and his stepson were attacked in New York City on Friday night, authorities said.
The incident occurred just before 9 p.m. on Second Avenue near East 96th Street on the Upper East Side, according to the New York City Police Department.
Police said officers were sent to the scene after an assault was reported. When officers arrived, police say they found a 20-year-old man suffering from facial injuries and a 70-year-old man who had head pain. Both victims were taken to a local hospital in stable condition.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the former governor said the two were attacked while “taking a walk around the block near their home by some individuals that had a previous interaction with his stepson.”
The spokesperson said that they were injured “but were able to fight off their attackers.”
Both were taken to Cornell Hospital “as a precaution,” he added.
Police said no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
The 70-year-old Paterson, a Democrat, served as governor from 2008 to 2010, stepping into the post after the resignation of Eliot Spitzer following his prostitution scandal. He made history at the time as the state’s first-ever Black and legally blind governor.
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A 17-year-old boy was critically injured and a person is in custody after a gunman opened fire on a SEPTA bus in North Philadelphia Friday evening, police said.
At around 6:15 p.m., Philadelphia police were notified about a shooting on a SEPTA bus traveling on Allegheny Avenue near 3rd and 4th streets in North Philadelphia, Inspector D F Pace told CBS News Philadelphia.
There were an estimated 30 people on the bus at the time of the shooting, Pace said, but only the 17-year-old boy was believed to have been shot. Investigators said they believe it was a targeted attack on the teenager and that he was shot in the back of the bus at close range.
According to Pace, the SEPTA bus driver alerted a control center about the shooting, which then relayed the message to Philadelphia police, who responded to the scene shortly.
Officers arrived at the scene and found at least one spent shell casing and blood on the bus, but no shooting victim, Pace said. Investigators later discovered the 17-year-old had been taken to Temple University Hospital where he is said to be in critical condition, according to police.
CBS Philadelphia
Through their preliminary investigation, police learned those involved in the SEPTA shooting may have fled in a silver-colored Kia.
Authorities then found a car matching the description of the Kia speeding in the area and a pursuit began, Pace said. Police got help from a PPD helicopter as they followed the Kia, which ended up crashing at 5th and Greenwood streets in East Mount Airy. Pace said the Kia crashed into a parked car.
The driver of the crashed car ran away but police were still able to take them into custody, Pace said.
Investigators believe there was a second person involved in the shooting who ran from the car before it crashed. Police said they believe this person escaped near Allegheny Avenue and 4th Street, leaving a coat behind.
According to Pace, police also found a gun and a group of spent shell casings believed to be involved in the shooting in the same area.
“It’s very possible that there may have been a shooting inside the bus and also shots fired from outside of the bus toward the bus,” Pace said, “We’re still trying to piece all that together at this time.”
This is an active investigation and police are reviewing surveillance footage from the SEPTA bus.