A sign stands in front of the Alabama State Capitol building as people watch a virtual vigil on Zoom from the capitol steps in Montgomery, Ala., on Thursday January 25, 2024 as they wait to hear news of the planned execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith. © Mickey Welsh / USA TODAY NETWORK
Syndication: The Montgomery Advertiser
(Boise, ID) — The planned execution of a convicted killer in Idaho was stopped Wednesday after medics were unable to establish an IV for the lethal drugs. Medics made eight attempts to start an IV on Thomas Creech to no avail. The Idaho Department of Corrections Warden then stepped in to stop the execution. Creech was convicted of five murders in three states and also killed an inmate, which led to the death sentence. The execution was given the green light to proceed after the Supreme Court rejected last minute appeals made by Creech’s lawyer. The aborted execution would have been the first in Idaho in 12 years. Creech is the longest-serving inmate on Idaho’s death row.
In January, Alabama carried out the nation’s first execution by nitrogen hypoxia. The state executed convicted murderer Kenneth Eugene Smith. He was sentenced to death for a 1988 murder and lived through a botched 2022 execution attempt. An attorney for Smith had asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to block the execution, arguing the untested method may violate the constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the final appeal, hours before the execution.
