IDAHO STATE CAPITOL — Protesters from multiple groups protested the upcoming execution of Thomas Creech at Idaho's state Capitol on Tuesday. Thousands of petition signatures were also delivered to the Governor's offices.
- Abraham Bonowitz, executive director of Death Penalty Action, says the execution would leave a black mark on Idahoans' hands.
- Leo Morales, executive director of ACLU Idaho, says Idaho and the rest of the country need to evolve its standard of decency.
- Governor Brad Little is not expected to stop Creech's execution.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
“The judge who sentenced Thomas Creech says we should not be doing this,” said Abaraham Bonowitz, executive director of Death Penalty Action.
Idahoans against the execution of death row inmate Thomas Creech asking the governor to step in and call things off.
“We do not have to be executing this 73-year-old man in order to hold him severely accountable. What he has instead, could have instead is death by incarceration rather than death at all of our hands with an execution,” said Bonowitz.
With just hours to go, Abraham Bonowitz and others delivered thousands of signatures in favor of stopping the execution to the governor's office at the state capitol on Tuesday.
“Unless your motivation is vengeance, then there's really no way to support the death penalty based on the system as it presently exists,” said Bonowitz.
“And it's also time for Idaho and the entire country to move away and evolve its standard of decency and ultimately do away with the death penalty,” said Leo Morales, executive director of ACLU of Idaho.
ACLU of Idaho executive director Leo Morales hopes the petitions will show the governor there are Idahoans who do not support the death penalty with the scheduled execution just hours away.
“Little, you have one opportunity to make the difference in saving a person's life and not committing a killing in the name of justice,” said Morales.
Bonowitz says this execution would leave a black mark on Idaho’s hands.
“Idaho can be safe from dangerous offenders without executions, and we know that because that's what they do a vast majority of the time,” said Bonowitz.
