Idaho halted the execution of serial killer Thomas Eugene Creech after medical staff were unable to establish an intravenous line to carry out the lethal injection.
Over the course of an hour, staff made eight attempts to insert IVs in Creech’s arms, legs, hands and feet without success.
Creech’s attorneys then filed an emergency stay, arguing the botched execution attempt demonstrated Idaho’s inability to carry out a humane execution.
Creech’s attorneys said, “the badly botched execution attempt” proves the department’s “inability to carry out a humane and constitutional execution.”
The Federal Defender Services of Idaho wrote in a statement, “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,” the statement continued.
The court granted the stay after Idaho said it would not try again before the death warrant expired.
Creech, 73, had been on death row for over 50 years for murdering a fellow inmate in 1981.
Idaho has struggled to carry out executions in recent years, and the failed attempt demonstrated the challenges faced when using volunteers with unknown medical qualifications.
