Idaho fails to execute serial killer Thomas Creech after 10 failed attempts to find the vein for IV line

Idaho's botched execution of nation's longest-serving death row inmate, Thomas Creech, as medical team fails to find suitable veins for lethal injection.

Idaho’s attempt to execute one of the nation’s longest-serving death row inmates, Thomas Creech, was halted on Wednesday after the medical team could not find a suitable vein for the lethal injection after trying 10 times in both of his arms and legs.

Idaho on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024, halted the execution of serial killer Thomas Eugene Creech, one of the longest-serving death row inmates in the U.S., after a medical team repeatedly failed to find a vein where they could establish an intravenous line to carry out the lethal injection. (Idaho Department of Correction via AP, File) (AP)

Creech, 73, who has been in prison since 1974 for multiple murders, was scheduled to die for the 1981 killing of a fellow prisoner with a sock filled with batteries. He is also the prime suspect in a cold case from 1974 in California that was recently solved.

The U.S. Supreme Court had rejected several appeals from Creech’s lawyers, who argued that he had ineffective assistance of counsel and that the state’s execution protocol was unconstitutional.

However, the execution could not proceed because the medical team failed to establish an IV line after trying 10 times in both of Creech’s arms and legs, according to a statement from the Idaho Department of Correction.

The state’s death warrant expired as a result, and the state will have to seek a new execution date from the court.

The ‘harmelss old man’ has suffered enough

Creech’s lawyers expressed their anger and frustration at the state’s “botched” execution, saying that it was the result of using “unknown individuals with unknown training” to carry out the procedure.

They also said that Creech was “a harmless old man” who had suffered enough.

Idaho has not executed anyone since 2012, and is one of the few states that allow the use of firing squads as an alternative method of execution. However, according to the Associated Press, the state has not yet built a facility or developed a policy for that option.

Meanwhile, Texas was preparing to execute Ivan Cantu on Wednesday night, despite claims of his innocence and calls for a retrial from his supporters, including some celebrities and jurors from his original trial.

Cantu was convicted of shooting his cousin and his cousin’s fiancée during a robbery in 2000. He maintains that he was framed by another man who was the real killer.