Idaho has postponed the execution of convicted serial killer Thomas Eugene Creech, following a failed attempt at lethal injection on Wednesday (Feb 28). This comes as Creech faced the death penalty for the 1981 murder of a fellow prisoner using a battery-filled sock.
A spokesperson for the Idaho Department of Correction, Sanda Kuzeta-Cerimagic, disclosed, “The medical team could not establish an IV line, rendering the execution unable to proceed.”
After the failed attempt at killing Creech, the death warrant will “expire”, media reports said. Kuzeta-Cerimagic said that the state will now consider the next steps in the case.
Despite three unsuccessful requests for a stay of execution from Creech, the US Supreme Court denied the appeals Wednesday (Feb 28) morning.
This would have marked Idaho’s first execution in over a decade, had it been carried out successfully.
Creech’s legal team, representing the Federal Defender Services of Idaho, expressed outrage, stating that state officials made ten unsuccessful attempts to access veins in Creech’s arms and legs for the lethal injection.
“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,” the legal team said in a statement.
The Federal Defender Services of Idaho further said, “This is precisely the kind of mishap we warned the State and the Courts could happen when attempting to execute one of the country’s oldest death-row inmates.”
Concerns around injection drug
The legal team criticised Idaho’s alleged secrecy surrounding the execution process and questioned the sources of the lethal injection drug, pentobarbital.
Creech’s attorneys argued that the state failed to provide adequate information about the drug’s origin, potentially compromising its effectiveness.
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Creech, an Ohio native, has been on death row for nearly fifty years, convicted of five murders across three states. Recent investigations linked him to additional unsolved cases, including a 1974 murder in California.
(With inputs from agencies)
