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Nearly eight months after the first botched execution in Idaho history, the state prison system has made changes to its lethal injection procedures to enforce the death penalty and prevent recurrences.
The Idaho Department of Correction last summer modified the execution chamber at the maximum-security prison south of Boise to keep lethal injections as the preferred method, the department said in a news release Tuesday. Idaho’s death row, which houses the state’s male death row inmates, is also located in that prison.
The announced changes now allow members of the prison’s execution team to pursue more intensive processes to access an inmate’s veins when standard intravenous lines at various points of the body are not possible, the news release said. In February, prison officials called off the lethal injection of a 73-year-old inmate after an hour-long effort to find a suitable vein for an IV.
“Our previous protocols have proven effective in protecting the integrity of the process and ensuring compliance with the Eighth Amendment’s protections against cruel and unusual punishment,” IDOC Director Josh Tewalt said in the news release. “These changes increase the state’s ability to carry out execution by lethal injection by ensuring we have the infrastructure in place to establish IV access.”
No active death sentences exist for an Idaho inmate. The Idaho Attorney General’s Office and the Ada County Prosecutor’s Office did not immediately respond to requests from the Idaho Statesman to confirm that they are not pursuing charges against a member on death row.
The state’s revised lethal injection process will allow a central line to access an inmate’s body to administer a lethal dose of chemicals via syringes when a regular IV drip, also called peripheral access, cannot be achieved . The department renovated part of the maximum security prison area near the existing execution chamber to create a “preparation room,” where the execution team will decide what type of vein access is needed before escorting the inmate to the execution chamber.
There was already a central line in the prison system’s execution protocols, documents on the lethal injection procedure showed. But the execution team was not trained and prepared to carry out the enhanced lethal injection process in February, when it failed to execute inmate Thomas Creech despite attempts to inject him at eight different entry points into his body, Tewalt previously said.
“When we start establishing what’s called a central line, you’re essentially talking about a surgical procedure,” he told an Idaho House committee the day after he called off the execution. “So our team is qualified and competent in setting up perimeter lines. They tried this in eight different locations, including arms, legs, feet and hands, and were unable to detect this successfully.”
Idaho hasn’t executed a prisoner in more than a dozen years; the last time by lethal injection in June 2012. In the past thirty years, only two prisoners have been executed. Idaho’s death row currently has nine members.
Creech begins a legal battle over another execution attempt
After surviving his scheduled execution earlier this year, Creech — now 74 and the state’s longest-serving death row inmate — claimed in a lawsuit that a second attempt to execute him would violate his constitutional rights to cruel and unusual punish. A Fourth District judge in Ada County ruled against him last month and dismissed the case. Creech’s lawyers have asked the judge to reconsider his ruling.
Central lines are often used for medical purposes to administer fluids or medications through an IV when peripheral access is not available, the prison said in the news release. Central lines for the execution of a prisoner by lethal injection may now include lines entering through an internal jugular vein in the neck, a femoral vein in the thigh, or a subclavian vein in the chest.
The prison system said it will have a “qualified physician” on site for future lethal injection executions to help set up a central line if the execution team leader determines a peripheral IV line is not possible. Among several national medical groups, the American Medical Association prohibits its members from participating in any form of execution.
Idaho’s foreclosure defense law prevents the public release of identifying information about execution team members.
In addition to the construction of the new execution preparation room, the prison system added live, closed-loop video and audio feeds to broadcast the entire execution process to state and inmate witnesses, the news release said. The addition helps meet federal legal requirements surrounding an foreclosure.
Last year, the Idaho Legislature passed a law that made a firing squad the state’s backup execution method when lethal injection drugs are unavailable. Tewalt will have the responsibility to make the decision until five days after a death sentence is issued. The prison system has a stockpile of lethal injection drugs, he previously told the Statesman in an interview.
The Legislature has set aside $750,000 to retrofit the execution chamber and provide an alternative to the firing squad, but construction has yet to begin.
