The execution of Idaho’s longest-serving death row inmate has been delayed after officials failed to deliver a fatal lethal injection dose.
The death sentence against serial killer Thomas Creech, 73, was due to be carried out in Boise on Wednesday. The execution would have been Idaho’s first in 12 years.
„The medical team could not establish an IV line, rendering the execution unable to proceed”. prison officials said in a statement.
The failure took place only a few hours before Texas executed a double murderer who professed his innocence to the very last moment.
Ivan Cantu of Texas and his supporters argued that he deserved a retrial due to ineffective defence counsel during his trial. His cause had garnered the support of celebrities including Kim Kardashian as well as Reps Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass) and Joaquin Castro (D-Tex).
Thomas Creech of Idaho has been in prison since 1974 and was sentenced to die for the 1981 fatal beating of a fellow inmate. In addition to being Idaho’s longest-serving death row inmates, he is also one of the oldest.
He has been convicted of five murders in three states, and is suspected of several other killings. Just last month, authorities near Los Angeles closed a nearly 50-year old murder case after successfully identifying Creech as the suspect.
Wednesday’s execution was due to occur hours after the US Supreme Court denied multiple requests from his legal team to stay the sentence, after finding no grounds to merit any leniency.
Idaho Department of Correction spokeswoman Sanda Kuzeta-Cerimagic told reporters that the inability to establish an IV line meant that the state’s death warrant would expire, leaving it to „consider next steps”.
Creech’s lawyers said in a statement that the state tried to access his veins in both of his arms and legs 10 times before giving up.
„We are angered but not surprised that the State of Idaho botched the execution of Thomas Creech today. This is what happens when unknown individuals with unknown training are assigned to carry out an execution,” they said in a statement.
In any case, identifies of individuals who perform executions in the US are protected by the state.
This is nothing new: Alabama was forced to call off two lethal injection executions in 2022 after failing to successfully locate the inmates’ veins.
One of the two Alabama inmates was put to death last month, with a new previously untested method of using nitrogen gas to cut off oxygen to the brain.
The UN and the EU have condemned the nitrogen gas method as cruel, but Alabama has called it „effective and humane”.
Last year, lawmakers in Idaho passed a law authorizing inmates to be executed by firing squad.
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