AFP
USA: This Convict Narrowly Avoids the Death Penalty Due to a Botched Infusion (Illustrative Photo)
DEATH PENALTY – Bad veins literally saved his life. Currently. A death row prisoner in the United States could not be executed by injection this Wednesday, February 28, because he was not given an infusion within the legal time limits.
The execution of 73-year-old Thomas Creech was stopped at the last minute in Idaho because the lethal solution could not be administered to him in time, the prison administration of this northwestern state said.
The convict is a serial killer who spent more than 50 years on death row for killing a fellow inmate during his life sentence. This is because he killed a certain number of people.
Impossible to reach the veins
He was scheduled to be executed this Wednesday, but almost an hour after the execution began, prison authorities concluded that it was impossible to “give him an intravenous infusion,” according to a press release from the prison administration. He specified that three members of the medical team tried eight times to create an infusion.
In some cases they did not have access to the vein, in others they had concerns about the quality of the vein. The team attempted to insert the IV into his arms, legs, hands and feet. Vain. So much so that a member of the medical team had to get additional supplies, emphasizes the AP press agency present on site.
“The executive order therefore expires,” the prison administration added, noting that the state should decide how to proceed in this case.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 US states
The most recent execution missed for these reasons was that of Kenneth Smith on November 17, 2022 in Alabama (Southeast). He was finally sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of a woman ordered by her husband and was ultimately executed on January 25 by nitrogen inhalation, a world first that sparked a wave of outrage worldwide.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 US states. Six others (Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee) observe a moratorium on executions by order of the governor.
According to a recent Gallup Institute poll, a majority of Americans (50% vs. 47%) believe that the death penalty is not administered fairly in the United States, a first since that poll began in 2000. The majority (53%) are vocally supportive same source nevertheless the death penalty.
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