The hour of Thomas Eugene Creech’s death has been set. On Wednesday morning Idaho prison officials will have the 73-year-old brought into the state’s execution chamber at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution south of Boise.

The hour of Thomas Eugene Creech’s death has been set, and it is rapidly approaching.

On Wednesday morning Idaho prison officials will ask the 73-year-old if he would like a mild sedative to help calm him before his execution at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution south of Boise. Then, at 10 a.m. local time, they will bring him into the execution chamber and strap him to a padded medical table.

Defense attorneys and the warden will check for any last-minute court orders that would halt the execution of Creech, who is one of the longest-serving death row inmates in the U.S.

Barring any legal stay, volunteers with medical training will insert a catheter into one of Creech’s veins. He’ll be given a chance to say his last words, and a spiritual advisor may pray with him. Then the state will inject a drug intended to kill the man who has been convicted of five murders in three states and is suspected in several more.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
      6·
      9 months ago

      If we could tell for certain who was innocent or who was guilty, there might be an argument for the death penalty (although I still say that the state having the power over life and death is immoral and unethical)… but until that day, saying that someone should be subject to an unjust law because of their heinous crime is not really an equitable way of thinking about how this country should work.

      And then there’s the huge racial disparity.

      https://www.nacdl.org/Content/Race-and-the-Death-Penalty

      I realize he’s as horrible as a person could be and his crime was atrocious. But that doesn’t mean we should apply a law to him that is simply not evenly applied and where innocent people are given a punishment that they cannot survive. Either laws should be fair and applied fairly or they should not be laws. Wouldn’t you agree?

      • jordanlund@lemmy.world
        31·
        9 months ago

        Oh, there’s absolutely no doubt that the death penalty is over-used, mis-applied, and in many cases outright racist, but I don’t see that as an argument to eliminate it, it’s an argument to correct it.

        And, yeah, we absolutely can determine when someone is guilty.

        Poster children for the death penalty:

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westley_Allan_Dodd

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Weaver_III

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Dahmer

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
          5·
          9 months ago

          Again, I do not deny that there have been absolutely horrible crimes committed and those people were then executed. But that does not make the law fair or equitable and unfair and non-equitable laws are simply immoral in my opinion.

          If you want to argue for death penalty reform, that’s fine. But why should anyone be put to death while the law is unevenly applied?

          Clearly, there was no rush in this case. So reform the law first.

          • jordanlund@lemmy.world
            1·
            9 months ago

            In clear cases, I don’t see the need for delay. They catch you with bodies or body parts on your property or in your house? Yeeeaaahhh…

            But you’re right, if something is a “simple” murder case, go ahead and hold off until things can get corrected. Ideally, it wouldn’t be applied in simple murders.

        • STOMPYI@lemmy.world
          22·
          9 months ago

          Can we at least agree its is right for us to allow them maximal spiritual growth before sending them on their way? Prison reform would be a very multifaceted thing beyond my intelligence alone to think up.

          My belief is your death conditions are correlated to your birth conditions (karma). This is a very common worldly belief mind you. That said, we all want a future with peace and love, and letting people die in fear and anguish will only allow their future conditions to bring that fear and anguish back. I know not everyone will believe this but I swear its worth exploring.