Thomas Creech was convicted of five murders in three states and is suspected of at least half-dozen other killings.
Idaho on Wednesday delayed the execution of convicted serial killer , one of the nation’s longest-serving death row inmates, after a failed attempt at lethal injection. Creech, who has been convicted of five murders, was sentenced to die for the killing of a fellow prisoner with a battery-filled sock in 1981.
«The medical team could not establish an IV line, rendering the execution unable to proceed,» Idaho Department of Correction spokesperson Sanda Kuzeta-Cerimagic said in a statement. «As a result, the death warrant will expire. The State will consider next steps.»
The U.S. Supreme Court denied three requests from the 73-year-old Creech for a stay of execution Wednesday morning. There were no noted dissents. The execution would mark Idaho’s first in more than a decade.
Creech’s attorneys with the Federal Defender Services of Idaho said in a statement that state officials tried and failed 10 times to access veins in both of his arms and legs to inject him with the lethal injection drug pentobarbital.
«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.
The lawyers said they had warned the state and courts that such a «mishap» could occur when trying to execute Creech, who is one of the nation’s oldest death-row inmates, «in circumstances completely shielded in secrecy despite a well-known history of getting drugs from shady sources.»
«Yesterday, the State called Mr. Creech’s worries ‘patently absurd’ in its motions to the U.
