BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — Wednesday will mark the first execution in Idaho since 2012, when the State executes Thomas Creech.
Creech has been on death row since 1983. He was serving a prison sentence for murder when he beat a fellow inmate to death. The Governor and the Parole Board have denied Creech clemency, saying that the State sentenced him to death for his crimes, and it is now their responsibility to carry it out.
Defense attorneys for Creech have tried anything and everything to put a halt to the execution, though unsuccessfully.
As Creech's execution date nears ever closer, CBS2 has begun looking into who else is on death row in Idaho and how long they have been sitting there. State executions are notorious for being a process that can take decades to carry out while every form of appeal, parole board hearing, and motion is heard in every court in the land. We wanted to know who else was sitting on death row, and this is what we found:
Azad Abdullah was convicted of first-degree murder for the arson death of his wife in Ada County. He was sentenced to death in 2004 and has been sitting on death row ever since.
Timothy Dunlap was convicted of first-degree murder for killing a woman during a bank robbery back in 1992.
James Hairston has been on death row since 1996 after he was convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of two people in Bannock County.
Erick Hall has been on death row since 2004 after he raped and killed two women in Ada County in 2000 and 2003.
Gerald Pizzuto, a man we have written about extensively over the years, has been on death row since 1986 for beating two people to death in Idaho County. Pizzuto's case has been a teeter-totter of will they - won't they over the last few decades. Federal Defenders successfully argued that Pizzuto's declining mental and physical health combined with his traumatic childhood issues should be reason enough to commute his sentence to life in prison, especially since doctors don't believe that he will live very much longer.
The Parole Commission voted to grant clemency to Pizzuto, commuting his sentence to life in prison without parole. Governor Little then overrode the commission, reinstating Pizzuto's death sentence, and his case has been on hold while the higher courts determine whether or not the Governor has the power to overrule the Parole Commission.
Jonathan Renfro, the most recent addition to death row in Idaho, was sentenced in 2017 for the shooting death of a police officer in Kootenai County.
Robin Row, the only female on death row in Idaho, was sentenced back in 1993 for the arson deaths of her husband, son, and daughter in Ada County.
ncG1vNJzZmihlJa1sLrEsKpnm5%2BifK%2Bx1qxmpaeTlrlwtcOan6irXZu2s7%2FTZpyxnZOqwaq7zWaqoqaTmnpzfJBrZK2nXamurLGMqaOam5VirrR5wpuqa2WZo8Omv9Oinpqslah6pbHArZ9mqp%2Bs