連続殺人犯の死刑執行失敗 米アイダホ州

【ワシントンＡＦＰ＝時事】米アイダホ州で２８日、連続殺人犯の薬物注射による死刑執行が失敗し、延期された。医療チームが静脈ラインを挿入できなかったという。（写真はトーマス・クリーチ死刑囚。米アイダホ州矯正局提供）
　刑が執行される予定だったのはトーマス・クリーチ死刑囚（７３）。刑務所関係者や立会人によると、同死刑囚は１時間にわたり執行室の台に拘束され、薬物を注入するための静脈ラインの挿入が繰り返し試みられた。
　アイダホ州矯正当局のジョシュ・テワルト局長は、８回にわたり腕と脚への挿入が失敗した後、刑の執行が中止されたと話した。
　「現時点では、次がいつになるか、どういった手続きをとるのか分かっていない」「近日中に協議される」と話した。
　アイダホ州では１２年ぶりの死刑執行になるはずだった。
　クリーチ死刑囚は１９８１年、刑務所で同房の受刑者を電池を入れた靴下で殺害し、死刑を言い渡された。それ以来４０年あまり拘置されていた。
　同死刑囚は当時、５人を殺害した罪で収監されていたが、これ以外にも数十人殺したと主張していた。
　米国では近年、死刑執行の失敗がたびたび起きている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/02/29-18:21）

The execution by lethal injection of a convicted serial killer in Idaho was halted on Wednesday after a medical team was unable to insert an intravenous line.
Thomas Creech, 73, was strapped to a table in the execution chamber for an hour as repeated attempts were made to set an IV line to deliver the lethal drugs, prison officials and witnesses said.
Creech was one of two convicted murderers scheduled to be executed in the United States on Wednesday.
The other, Ivan Cantu, 50, was put to death in Texas by lethal injection for a double murder he insisted he did not commit.
The doubts about Cantu's guilt had drawn attention to his case from the Catholic Church and a number of celebrities including Kim Kardashian and West Wing star Martin Sheen.
Idaho Department of Corrections director Josh Tewalt said Creech's execution was called off after the failure of eight attempts to set an IV line in his arms and legs.
We don't have an idea of timeframes or next steps at this point, Tewalt told reporters at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution south of the capital Boise. Those are things we will be discussing in the days ahead.
Brenda Rodriguez, a reporter with the local KTVB television station, said Creech did not appear to have been in severe pain at any point although he did tell the medical staff at one stage that his legs hurt a bit.
At the very end, when the execution was halted, he was just looking up, said Rodriguez, one of four media witnesses. it felt like he was almost in relief.
Creech, who has been on Death Row for more than 40 years and was to have been the first person executed in Idaho in 12 years, was sentenced to die for murdering his cellmate in 1981 with a battery-filled sock.
He was imprisoned at the time after being convicted of five other murders, although he claimed to have committed dozens more.
There have been a number of botched executions in the United States in recent years, including a failed attempt in Alabama in November 2022 to execute convicted killer Kenneth Smith by lethal injection.
Smith was eventually put to death in January of this year in the first execution in the country to be carried out using nitrogen gas.
Most of the botched executions have involved difficulties in inserting the IV needles that deliver the lethal drugs, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
- 'I never killed James and Amy' -
Cantu, the Texas inmate, was convicted in 2001 of the murders of his cousin James Mosqueda and Amy Kitchen, Mosqueda's fiancee, who were shot to death.
In a final statement before his execution, Cantu addressed the Mosqueda and Kitchen families and again proclaimed his innocence, Amanda Hernandez, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said.
I want you to know that I never killed James and Amy, Cantu said. If I knew who did, you would've been the first to know any information I would've had.
Cantu's then-fiancee, Amy Boettcher, who has since died, testified at his trial that he had admitted committing the murders and took her to Mosqueda's home afterward to look for hidden drugs and cash.
Among the evidence submitted at the trial was a pair of jeans with blood from the victims that was found in Cantu's kitchen trash can.
Lawyers for Cantu maintained that Boettcher lied on the witness stand and the jeans, which were too large for Cantu, were planted in the trash can.
The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, Kardashian, who has been active in prison reform, and Sheen, an opponent of the death penalty, had urged that Cantu's execution be called off because of the doubts about his guilt.
A MoveOn.org petition urging Texas Governor Greg Abbott to grant a stay of execution attracted some 150,000 signatures.
Capital punishment has been abolished in 23 US states, while the governors of six others -- Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee -- have put a hold on its use.
There were 24 executions in the United States in 2023, all of them carried out by lethal injection.