A closer look at why it takes so long to execute someone in Idaho

#eastidahonews #daybell #execution

BOISE — A 12-person jury sentenced Chad Daybell to death this month, but it will be many years, maybe decades, before the Fremont County man is executed.

Nine inmates are on death row in Idaho, with Daybell being the latest addition. Thomas Creech, the longest-serving inmate on death row, was sentenced to die 41 years ago, and an attempt was made to execute him in February but was called off after medical workers could not establish an IV line.

The seven other inmates have been on death row since 1986, 1992, 1993, 1996, 2004 and 2017, with the current length of stay averaging at just over 27 years.

RELATED | Who is on death row in Idaho?

The main reason for the long delay in executing inmates is due to a lengthy set of appeals, according to L. LaMont Anderson, the chief of the Idaho Attorney General’s Office Capital Litigation Unit. He has been an attorney in the division for 27 years.

“My unit is responsible for doing all the appellate work in capital cases in Idaho,” Anderson tells EastIdahoNews.com. “The appellate work from the capital arena includes appeals to the Idaho Supreme Court, the United States Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court for the state of Idaho and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.”

Automatic appeal and post conviction relief

The Idaho Supreme Court automatically reviews each death penalty sentence separate from any appeal that may be filed. This is not optional, cannot be waived and during this time, the death sentence is suspended.

“Capital cases are very, very different from noncapital cases,” Anderson says. “Instead of going directly to an appeal, you have post-conviction relief, and that petition has to be filed within 42 days of the entry of the judgment. In noncapital cases, you have the guilt phase, you have the sentencing phase, you have the first appeal and then after that first appeal, you go to post-conviction. But everything is consolidated in a capital case.”

According to Idaho law, “the defendant must file any legal or factual challenge to the sentence or conviction that is known or reasonably should be known” including any claims of ineffective assistance of counsel.

The defendant is appointed appellate public defense attorneys who review everything that took place during the trial, guilt and sentencing phases.

“Although the initial petition has to be filed within 42 days after the judgment has been entered, capital defendants are permitted to amend the petition,” Anderson says. “The state public defender’s office will have to review the transcripts, the clerk’s records and all of the exhibits. In a trial of that nature, it will take several months for the court reporters to transcribe the entirety.”

Read the rest of the story here: https://www.eastidahonews.com/2024/06...

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