The scheduled execution by lethal injection of a convicted serial killer in Idaho was halted on Wednesday after a medical team had problems inserting an intravenous line, prison officials said.
Thomas Creech, 73, had been set to be put to death at 10:00 am (1700 GMT) but his execution was called off an hour later, the Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) said in a statement.
IDOC director Josh Tewalt, “after consulting with the medical team leader, determined that the medical team could not establish an IV line, rendering the execution unable to proceed,” the IDOC said in a statement.
“As a result, the death warrant will expire,” it said, and Creech was returned to his cell.
“The state will consider next steps,” it added.
There have been a number of botched executions in the United States in recent years, including a failed attempt in Alabama in November 2022 to execute convicted killer Kenneth Smith by lethal injection.
Smith was eventually put to death in January of this year in the first execution in the country to be carried out using nitrogen gas.
Most of the botched executions have involved difficulties in inserting the intravenous needles that deliver lethal drugs, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Creech was sentenced to death for battering his cellmate to death in 1981 with a battery-filled sock.
He was imprisoned at the time after being convicted of five other murders, although he claimed to have committed dozens more.
His execution was to have been the first in Idaho in 12 years.
A Texas man is also scheduled to be executed on Wednesday for a double murder he insists he did not commit, in a case that has drawn the attention of the Catholic Church and celebrities Kim Kardashian and Martin Sheen.
Ivan Cantu, 50, was convicted in 2001 of the murders in Dallas the previous year of his cousin James Mosqueda and Amy Kitchen, Mosqueda’s fiancee, who were shot to death.
Cantu’s then-fiancee, Amy Boettcher, who has since died, testified at his trial that he had admitted committing the murders and took her to Mosqueda’s home later to show her the bodies and look for hidden drugs and cash.
Among the evidence submitted at the trial was a pair of jeans with blood from the victims that was found in Cantu’s kitchen trash can.
Lawyers for Cantu maintain that Boettcher lied on the witness stand and the jeans, which were too large for Cantu, were planted in the trash can by someone else.
Cantu has steadfastly proclaimed his innocence and said the murders were carried out by a drug dealer to whom Mosqueda owed a substantial sum of money.
