One of America's longest serving death row inmates has been temporarily spared after prison officials were unable to deliver his lethal injection.
Thomas Eugene Creech was due to be executed at 10am local time in a maximum-security prison in Idaho.
However, the execution was abandoned at 10.58am (local time) after prison officials were unable to establish an IV.
It came after it appeared the 73-year-old's final chance at a last-minute reprieve was denied by the Supreme Court, despite claims his execution should be delayed so a court could weigh his claim prosecutors lied.
Thomas Eugene Creech was set to be executed at the Idaho State Correctional Complex
Google Maps/Idaho Department of Correction
A spokesperson from the Idaho Department of Corrections said: "At approximately 11am, Director Tewalt, after consulting with the medical team leader, determined that the medical team could not establish an IV line, rendering the execution unable to proceed.
"Mr Creech will be returned to his cell and witnesses will be escorted out of the facility. As a result, the death warrant will expire. The State will consider next steps."
Creech has been convicted of five murders and is suspected of several more. He was originally sentenced to death for shooting dead John Wayne Bradford and Edward Thomas Arnold.
However, that sentence was changed to life in prison after the state's sentencing law was found to be unconstitutional. In 1983 he was sentenced to death for the murder of David Dale Jensen, who was 22, disabled and serving time for a car theft when Creech beat him to death in prison in May 1981.
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The facility in Idaho where he was set to be executed
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Creech has also been convicted of two killings in 1974, William Joseph Dean in Oregon and Vivian Grant Robinson in California.
He was also charged with killing Sandra Jane Ramsamooj in Oregon that year, but the charge was later dropped in light of his other murder sentences.
In 1973, Creech was tried for the killing of 70-year-old Paul Schrader in Arizona, but was cleared of the crime.
His supporters had pushed to have his sentence converted to life without parole, saying he was a deeply changed man.
Back in November, Kenneth Smith, who was convicted of a 1988 murder-for-hire, was executed with nitrogen gas.
In his last words, before the nitrogen was switched on, Smith made a lengthy final statement that began: "Tonight, Alabama caused humanity to take a step backward."
His wife and other relatives attended and he gestured towards them. "I'm leaving with love, peace and light," he said, according to media witnesses. "Love all of you."
Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Hamm told a press conference: "It appeared that Smith was holding his breath as long as he could. He struggled against the restraints a little bit but it's an involuntary movement and some agonal breathing. So that was all expected."
