BOISE, Idaho — Attorneys representing Idaho's longest-serving death row inmate, Thomas Creech, filed a petition to commute his death sentence to life without parole to challenge the allegation of him being the suspect in a California cold case.
On Tuesday, several documents were filed to the Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole, including a letter in support of the petition for commutation from a family member of Daniel Walker, who was killed in San Bernardino County on Oct. 1, 1974.
In the letter, the brother is asking for a delay in Creech's execution for a clemency hearing to be granted to clarify and answer questions about Walker's murder.
His brother argues the Ada County Prosecutor's Office's statement on Jan. 19, 2024, that the cold case of Walker was solved through a “thorough investigation," is false.
"We are concerned that we were manipulated into participating in a hearing where the stakes were as high as they can get, namely the death penalty, and that this resulted in false statements being made that corrupted the Commission’s decision-making process," Walker's brother said in court documents.
The brother goes on and said, "therefore, we are respectfully requesting that the Commission stay or delay the impending execution of Mr. Creech on November 13 and grant a new clemency hearing to allow time for an actual 'thorough investigation.'"
Walker's brother said in court documents that it is impossible to know the exact circumstances of his brother's death, and delaying the execution will upset families of other victims of Creech.
"But with all due respect, those victims had the benefit of full investigations and fact finding into the circumstances of their deaths which Daniel Walker was never afforded," Walker's brother said. "We are asking for for that chance now. The state of Idaho has waited decades to execute Thomas Creech. Please wait just a few months more, in the interest of justice for Daniel Walker."
Attorneys representing Creech said he was accused of Walker's murder during a clemency hearing earlier in 2024, and the prosecutors urged the parole board to deny him clemency.
Attorneys said Creech didn't have enough "time to meaningfully defend himself," which resulted in the tie vote by the parole board commissioners and allowed his scheduled Feb. 28, 2024, execution to continue.
"Since the botched execution, Mr. Creech’s legal team has been able to develop information that the lead detectives on the Walker case had thoroughly investigated him as a suspect at the time of the crime, but ultimately found his stories unbelievable and ruled him out," attorneys said in court documents.
According to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's website, Daniel Walker's murder remains on the cold case page.
CREECH'S ATTORNEYS OTHER ARGUMENTS
Within Tuesday's petition for commutation, Creech's attorneys also argue the state of Idaho is "making history in the worst way possible" as they are making a second attempt at executing him.
"Until now, no state has ever been cruel enough to use lethal injection against a man, fail to put him to death, and then go right back to the same method to try to kill him again," attorneys said in court documents.
Attorneys continued and said Creech had been traumatized by the failed execution and with IDOC medical personnel unable to establish a peripheral IV line.
Court documents referencing IDOC will likely resort to using a central IV, but Creech's attorneys are against the use, as they said it is a rare procedure.
"If IDOC cannot be trusted to pull off the standard kind of lethal injection, as it proved in February, it certainly cannot be trusted to pull off this much rarer kind," attorneys said in court documents.
On Oct. 15, the Associated Press reported the Idaho Department of Correction announced it will use central veins deep in the groin, neck, chest or arm to execute prisoners by lethal injection if attempts to insert standard IV lines fail.
"Mr. Creech respectfully asks that the Commission hold a hearing on his commutation petition so that it can decide on the fullest facts whether the death sentence should be reduced to life in prison without the possibility of parole," attorneys said in court documents.
Creech's second execution attempt is still scheduled for Nov. 13.