Eight Atrocious Failed Attempts to Execute Serial Killer Thomas Creech in Idaho

Serial killer Thomas Creech was due to be executed on Wednesday night after half a century on death row, but returned to his cell after eight atrocious failed attempts.

through the mirror

For nearly an hour, Creech lay strapped to a table in Idaho’s execution chamber while members of the medical team groped and pulled at his arms, legs, hands and feet, trying to find a vein through which they could end his life. But after eight painful attempts, the prison director told him to give up and returned the 73-year-old to his cell.

Creech’s death warrant, issued by Fourth Judicial District Judge Jason Scott, said he must be executed by 11:59 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 29. When an early morning attempt to execute him failed, his lawyers rushed to file a new request for a stay. In federal court, before the state tried again, he asserted that the “failed enforcement effort” demonstrated the department’s “inability to carry out humane and constitutional enforcement.”

what happened?

Creech, one of the longest-serving death row inmates in the United States, was incarcerated in 1974 for a series of five murders in three states, although he is suspected of several others. After serving a life sentence in prison for those murders, he beat a fellow inmate, 22-year-old David Dale Jensen, in 1981.

He had his last meal of fried chicken and gravy on Tuesday night. At 10 a.m. Wednesday he was taken on a stretcher to the death chamber at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, where he was to die for one of his crimes: the 1981 beating death of a disabled fellow inmate serving time for car theft.

Three members of the medical team tried eight times to install an IV, said Department of Corrections Director Josh Tewalt. In some cases, they could not access the vein, and in others, they could, but they were concerned about the quality of the vein.

At one point, a member of the medical team left to get more supplies. The director announced that he would cease his efforts at 10:58 am.

Why couldn’t they run it?

It’s not clear why they had the problem. A variety of factors can affect the accessibility of a person’s veins, including dehydration, stress, ambient temperature, or physical characteristics. Creech’s lawyers have said he suffers from a number of medical conditions, including type 2 diabetes, hypertension and edema. These diseases can affect the circulation and accessibility of veins.

Medical experts also say that a practitioner’s experience inserting an IV can help determine whether the procedure is successful.

The execution team was made up entirely of volunteers who, according to Idaho execution protocols, were required to have at least three years of medical experience, such as being a paramedic. They were not necessarily doctors, who famously swear to “do no harm”.

The identity and qualifications of the medical team members were kept confidential. They wore white balaclava-style masks and navy blue medical caps to conceal themselves.

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