OPINION: Little gets his chance to do the right thing

If Idaho Gov. Brad Little lacked a reason to stop the execution of Thomas Creech, he found one Wednesday.

After an hour of trying and failing eight times to find a vein to insert an IV into — as the Associated Press reported — “the crook of his arms, his hands, near his ankles and in his feet” and begin Creech’s execution by lethal injection, Idaho Department of Correction officials — correctly — called it off.

Now Creech is back in his cell, awaiting the issuance of another death warrant.

That makes Creech the sixth man in the United States to emerge from a failed execution by lethal injection — and Idaho is only the third state where it has occurred:

 -- Romell Broom. After two hours of trying, a Sept. 15, 2009, execution was halted. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine issued a reprieve. Broom died of COVID-19 on Dec. 28, 2020.

-- Alva Campbell. After a Nov. 15, 2017, Ohio execution failed, a second execution date was set for June 5, 2019. Before that could happen, Campbell died of cancer, lung disease and heart problems on March 3, 2018.

-- Doyle Ray Hamm. Alabama’s three-hourslong attempt to execute him failed on Feb. 22, 2018. The following month, Hamm and the state reached a confidential settlement, allowing him to die from cancer-related complications in 2021.

-- Alan Eugene Miller. On Sept. 22, 2022, Alabama abandoned an execution attempt after 90 minutes and 18 attempts to find a vein. The state won’t attempt another execution by lethal injection, but it may use nitrogen hypoxia.

-- Kenneth Eugene Smith. Almost 90 minutes after it began, Alabama’s attempt to execute Smith on Nov. 17, 2022, was called off. Then on Jan. 15, he was executed by nitrogen gas.

A split 3-3 Idaho Commission on Pardons and Parole vote gives Gov. Little the discretion to allow the 73-year-old Creech to die of natural causes.

Should he refuse, what options remain?

Another attempt at execution by lethal injection?

Subjecting an aged man, made infirm by decades in prison, to another attempt by people who are neither licensed doctors nor nurses to find a vein is a formula for yet another failed execution.

Most of the 15 grams of pentobarbital prison officials paid $50,000 to obtain is “unusable,” Correction Director Josh Tewalt told The Idaho Statesman. Major pharmaceutical firms won’t allow their products to be used for executions. So it’s no cinch that Idaho will reacquire the chemicals it needs.

Nitrous hypoxia?

At Smith’s Jan. 15 execution, witnesses described a prolonged process in which he “thrashed violently on the gurney” before he was pronounced dead.

You wouldn’t euthanize a dog — and just about any other mammal — that way. So says the American Veterinary Medical Association: “Loss of consciousness will be preceded by open-mouth breathing and hyperpnea (deeper breathing), which may be distressing for nonavian species.”

It’s also hard on the people who carry it out. “Repeating this scenario regularly may lead to emotional burnout, or compassion fatigue.”

Firing squad?

Lawmakers authorized it and allocated $750,000 to build a firing squad chamber.

But so far, no contractor has been willing to take on the job.

Even if that day comes, the psychological trauma on Department of Correction employees who have to carry out such a gruesome obligation may be severe.

Creech’s four-decadeslong tenure on death row has prompted the jurist who sentenced him — former 4th District Court Judge Robert G. Newhouse — and the prosecutor who convicted him — Ada County attorney Jim Harris — to now say too much time has gone by.

Enough is enough.

By drawing on his reservoirs of compassion and wisdom, Little can grant clemency and end this sordid saga. — M.T.