Washington: A convicted serial killer in the US state of Idaho is ‘almost in relief’ after doctors failed to carry out his execution by lethal injection on Wednesday.
The execution of Thomas Creech, 73, has been halted after the medical team was unable to insert an intravenous line, news agency AFP reported.
Thomas Creech spent for an hour in the execution chamber having strapped to a table while attempts ‘to establish an IV line to deliver the lethal drugs’ fell through, it is reported citing prison officials.
Having failed in eight attempts to find an IV line in Creech's arms and legs, execution was called off, Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) director Josh Tewalt reportedly said.
Tewalt told reporters that ‘we don't have an idea of timeframes or next steps at this point, adding ‘Those are things we will be discussing in the days ahead.’
A reporter with the local TV station said that Creech was not seemingly in pain ‘at any point’ but at one stage told staff that his ‘legs hurt a bit’.
Brenda Rodriguez, the reporter with KTVB television station, further said that when the execution was called off, Creech mumbled ‘a couple of words’ and appeared to be ‘almost in relief’.
Creech, who has been Death Row for more than 40 years, was imprisoned for five other murders, before he murdered his cellmate in 1981 with a battery-filled sock.
Creech was to have been the first person executed in 12 years in Idaho on Wednesday, the news agency reported.
Thomas Creech’s case includes several of the botched executions reported in the US in recent years.
In November 2022 the attempt to execute convicted killer Kenneth Smith by lethal injection was failed and he was later put to death in January using nitrogen gas in first of its kind capital punishment.