Idaho halted the execution of serial killer Thomas Eugene Creech, the latest in a number of botched lethal injections across the country. Fordham Law Professor Deborah Denno spoke to USA TODAY about what may have gone wrong.
During the country’s first lethal injection, executioners in Texas struggled to find a suitable vein in Charles Brooks because of his heavy drug use, Fordham University law professor Deborah Denno wrote in a chapter in a forthcoming publication titled “Six U.S. Execution Methods and the Disastrous Quest for Humaneness.”
Factors including dehydration, stress, room temperature and certain illnesses can also make veins more difficult to access. Another problem may be that the person inserting the IV line during an execution lacks experience, Denno, the founding director of the university’s Neuroscience and Law Center, told USA TODAY.
“They may not be the person who you and I might go to to have blood drawn who’s done this a thousand times, right?” she said. “I mean it may be somebody who is doing much lower level kind of work even though they’re a medical professional.”