Murderer Thomas Creech, who survived a botched execution in 2024, has described his harrowing experience as medics fought for an hour to end his life as planned. The account comes after death row inmate Christa Pike remained alive after receiving two lethal injections and was taken to hospital.
Failed attempts to find a vein
Creech, who has been imprisoned in Idaho for more than 50 years for five murders in three states, was scheduled to die by lethal injection in February 2024. He had been given a 'terrorising' tour of the death chamber a few weeks earlier and knew what was in store. The night before, he ate a last meal of chicken, mashed potatoes, and gravy from the prison kitchen, and met with his lawyers, wife and stepson to say goodbye.
The next morning, he prayed with a spiritual adviser and was strapped to a board inside his cell in the death row unit known as F Block. The board was placed on a cart, which was wheeled into the execution chamber at Idaho Maximum Security Institution, where part of his body was covered with a sheet. He looked at his wife through the glass and tried to tell her he was sorry as the execution team tried to find a usable vein in his right arm. That failed. Next was his left, then his hands, and, after almost an hour of failed needle insertions, medical workers turned to his legs.
"The worst ones was when they got down to my ankles," the 76-year-old told the New York Times. "I was thinking the whole time that this is really it. I'm dead. This is my day to die."
Trauma of the execution team
His lawyer Deborah Czuba described how three men in scrubs, whose identity was hidden by 'mask-like hoods' and goggles, struggled in vain to insert the IV line needed to pump a deadly drug into his bloodstream, with the lead executioner only speaking to give instructions. Creech kept his eyes firmly on openly distressed wife LeAnn Creech, who is the mother of a prison guard. The couple married in 1998. "That look on her face tore my heart out," he said.
The execution was finally called off just before 11am. "I don't think it's something you get beyond," Ms Czuba said, expressing her belief that everyone present, including the execution team, was left deeply traumatised by what they saw that day. "I think it's that scarring, mental-health-wise. It just really devastates a person in a way they can't come back from."
Director of Idaho's prison system, Josh Tewalt, said at a news conference afterwards that prison officials had done the right thing by stopping the execution. "We, from the very beginning, try to be very candid and upfront that this isn't a do-it-at-any-cost process," he said. "Our first objective is to carry this out with dignity, professionalism and respect. And part of that was training and practicing for the chance that they were unable to establish IV access."
Legal challenges and new execution warrant
Creech is one of the longest-serving death row prisoners in the country. He has offered varying accounts about his crimes. At one point, he testified that he had killed as many as 42 people, some of them on behalf of a motorcycle gang or as part of a Satanic religious ritual. Later, however, he revoked his claims and said he had been put up to them by a fame-seeking lawyer. He has since said he believed he had killed seven people while in the throes of drug abuse. He also claimed that his victims had all been involved in a gang-rape of his former wife, who later died by suicide.
Legally, Creech has been convicted of five murders, including the fatal beating of a fellow prisoner, David Jensen, in 1981, for which he was sentenced to death. His lawyers asked a judge to nullify his death sentence, arguing that it would be unconstitutional to execute him after already subjecting him to one botched attempt, asserting that doing so would be both "cruel and unusual" and constitute double jeopardy.
On October 16, 2024, a new death warrant was issued for Creech with a scheduled execution date of November 13, 2024. Just days before he was granted a stay of execution to allow for legal challenges against the execution protocol. As of July 2026, he remained locked up at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution awaiting a new execution date.
He has told how despite surviving, the trauma is almost equal to death. "I thought maybe I might already be in the afterlife. Even now, today, I stop and I have to catch myself and think, 'Am I really dead? I was supposed to be dead on the 28th of February. Am I really dead, and this is part of the afterlife? Continued punishment for my sins that I've committed?'"
It comes after death row inmate Christa Pike remained alive after receiving two lethal injections yesterday, and has been taken to hospital, her lawyer says. The Tennessee inmate's legal team filed an emergency motion to stop the execution as it was happening, saying: "Ms Pike has lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat and is audibly snoring." The BBC was told by one of her attorneys that Pike, 50, was "being provided life-saving measures" after receiving the two injections.
