Idaho halts execution after 8 failed attempts to insert IV
Authorities in Idaho halted the execution of serial killer Thomas Eugene Creech on Wednesday after medical workers were unable to insert an IV for lethal injection.
Creech was brought into the execution chamber and strapped down, according to Josh Tewalt, director of the Idaho Department of Correction. “The team attempted eight times, through multiple limbs and appendages, to establish IV access,” he said at a news conference, but those efforts were unsuccessful and the execution was called off.
“Our first objective is to carry this out with dignity, professionalism and respect,” he added.
Creech’s death warrant expired at the end of day and he was returned to his cell, Tewalt said in a message to staff, and authorities will meet to determine next steps.
Creech, 73, has been convicted of five murders — three in Idaho, one in California and one in Oregon — according to the Ada County Prosecutor’s Office. He was sentenced to death for the murder in 1981 of fellow inmate David Dale Jenson and has spent decades in prison.
The failed attempt comes amid questions about the use of lethal injection for executions, which have been beset by problems in recent years, including drug shortages. In March, the Idaho Senate passed a bill that would restore firing squads as a backup method for executions when lethal injection is unavailable or becomes unconstitutional.
“We are angered but not surprised that the state of Idaho botched the execution of Thomas Creech today,” Deborah A. Czuba, a lawyer with his legal team at Federal Defender Services of Idaho, said in an emailed statement to the Idaho Statesman.
The Idaho chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union in a statement called on authorities to call off additional attempts at Creech’s execution and highlighted the lack of transparency in obtaining drugs for it.