An Idaho Department of Corrections vehicle patrols the exterior of the Idaho Maximum Security Institution near Kuna, Idaho on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. Thomas Eugene Creech, inset, was set to be executed, but officials couldn’t stick an IV into his arm. (AP Photo/Kyle Green)
Idaho officials Wednesday morning halted the execution of the man who murdered five people because they couldn’t insert an IV into his arm to give him the drugs to kill him.
Thomas Eugene Creech, 73, was set to die Wednesday, but prison officials said they stopped the process when three different medical professionals tried eight times to stick the IV into him but failed, Idaho Department of Corrections Director Josh Tewalt told reporters afterward. They tried in Creech’s arms, legs, hands and feet. The warden halted the execution just before 11 a.m.
Officials began the lethal injection process hours after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to issue a stay to halt the execution. But after the failed attempt, his lawyers filed another emergency motion for an immediate stay of execution.
“Given the badly botched execution attempt this morning, which proves IDOC’s inability to carry out a humane and constitutional execution, undersigned counsel preemptively seek an emergency stay of execution to prevent any further attempts today,” his attorneys said.
Tewalt said Creech’s death warrant has expired and the IDOC is considering its next steps.
Creech’s attorneys issued a statement blasting prison officials.
“We are angered but not surprised that the State of Idaho botched the execution of Thomas Creech today,” the statement said. “This is what happens when unknown individuals with unknown training are assigned to carry out an execution … 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 in circumstances completely shielded in secrecy despite a well-known history of getting drugs from shady sources.”
A statement from Thomas Creech’s lawyers in Idaho, who say he was stuck with a needle ten times in a botched attempt to execute him with “mysteriously acquired pentobarbital.” pic.twitter.com/qQc5zoLebx
— Maurice Chammah?? (@MauriceChammah) February 28, 2024
An Associated Press reporter who witnessed the execution attempt described Creech mouthing, “I love you,” to family members in a separate witness room as officials tried to stick the IV.
Creech was being executed for murdering a fellow inmate, 22-year-old David Dale Jensen, in 1981. He was convicted of four other murders in Idaho, California and Oregon dating to the 1970s. His “last” meal consisted of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy and ice cream.
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