KUNA, Idaho (NEWSnet/AP) — Idaho on Wednesday delayed the execution of Thomas Eugene Creech, one of the longest-serving death row inmates in the U.S., after a failed attempt at lethal injection.
Creech, 73, was imprisoned in 1974 and has been convicted of five murders in three states and suspected of several more.
[Earlier Report: Idaho Set to Execute Thomas Eugene Creech]
He was already serving life in prison when he beat a fellow inmate, 22-year-old David Dale Jensen, to death in 1981 — the crime for which Creech was to be executed more than four decades later.
Creech was wheeled into the room at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution on a gurney at 10 a.m. local time. The warden announced he was halting the execution at 10:58 a.m.
Idaho’s prison director said the medical team could not establish an IV line to administer the fatal drug. A team of three medical team members tried repeatedly to establish an IV, attempting sites in both of Creech’s arms and legs.
Creech’s attorneys immediately filed a new motion for a stay in U.S. District Court.
The Idaho Department of Corrections said its death warrant for Creech would expire, and that it was considering next steps.
The execution was to be Idaho’s first in 12 years.
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