Idaho | Local faith leaders rally against death penalty ahead of Thomas Creech execution

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho's longest-serving death row inmate is scheduled to be executed this week.

Thomas Creech, 73, was sentenced to death for killing a fellow inmate inside a state prison in 1981. He has been convicted of five murders from several decades ago.

Ahead of Wednesday's execution, local faith leaders are protesting the death penalty, calling for Creech to live out the rest of his life in prison.

Methodist, Jewish and other faith leaders gathered at the Cathedral of the Rockies in Boise Sunday to have a conversation around the death penalty. Many members of the group say that violence can not be solved with violence.

The event was organized by national nonprofit Death Penalty Action.

"Ultimately, we don't think government can be trusted with the power to kill," Death Penalty Action Executive Director Abraham Bonowitz said. "We don't think we need executions in order to be saved from people who've done awful things, or to hold them accountable. We know that's true because that's what we do in the vast majority of cases."

One of the speakers at the conversation was SuZanne Bosler, the daughter of a murder victim, who was stabbed herself during the attack.

During the murder trial, Bosler testified against giving her father's killer the death penalty.

"Forgiveness is good," Bosler said. "We're not saying what he did was okay, but we do not kill people. We do not murder. We do not execute. We do not have the death penalty - it is not right."

Bosler says, it took time - but her faith taught her to forgive.

"I truly believe that my father, before he took his last breath, forgave him way before I did," Bosler said. "I know that my dad tried to save me, but he had been stabbed so many times, it was impossible for him to help me. I almost feel sometimes that he was there for me, to hopefully save me in a spiritual sense that I could maybe survive."

Bosler says her goal as a survivor is to speak out and share her story until the death penalty is abolished.

"They're saying [killing] is wrong, but they're doing it too. It's not right," Bosler said. "Justice is not served, it's not right. It costs more money, and it never has brought closure to people who thought that it would bring closure to."

The group has additional execution protests scheduled this week, including one on Tuesday. to deliver a petition to Governor Little.

Source: ktvb.com, Jude Binkley, February 25, 2024

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