The execution of a 73-year-old American death row inmate, Thomas Creech, was stopped at the last minute in Idaho, United States, because it was not possible to administer the lethal solution within the legal deadline. This was announced by the Idaho Prison Administration.
The administration decided to stop the execution after eight attempts to place an IV on the inmate's arms or legs, said Corrections Director Josh Tewalt. But after about an hour, prison management concluded it was impossible to “put him on an IV,” the Idaho Prison Service said. “We still have no notion of a timetable or a follow-up measure,” he added, referring to a possible rescheduling, which would require a new execution order.
Brenda Rodriguez, a local television reporter who witnessed the execution along with other media representatives, testified that the man did not appear to have felt any serious pain but at one point complained of feeling “a little pain to the legs.” The last missed execution for similar reasons was that of Kenneth Smith in Alabama (southeast) on November 17, 2022. Definitively sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of a woman ordered by her husband, the man was finally executed on January 25 by nitrogen inhalation, a world first that sparked a wave of outrage. All 24 executions carried out in the United States in 2023 were carried out by lethal injection.
A man hanged in Singapore for strangling his ex-girlfriend
Execution also in Singapore, where a Bangladeshi citizen accused of strangling his ex-girlfriend in a hotel in the city in 2018 was hanged yesterday. The Singapore Police Force (SPF) said the death sentence had been carried out on Ahmed Salim, 35, who had unsuccessfully petitioned the president for clemency. This is the first judicial execution for murder in the Republic since 2019, a spokesperson for the Singapore Prison Service (SPS) told The Straits Times, adding that it is the first execution in 2024.