In the weeks leading up to what was expected to be a second attempt to execute Idaho’s longest-serving death row prisoner, state prison officials found they had a problem: Their lethal injection drugs expired.
Already difficult to acquire for use in executions, the drugs are costly, too.
According to public records obtained by the Idaho Statesman, Idaho paid $100,000 in state funds for the batch of pentobarbital.
Just a week after prisoner Thomas Creech was served another death warrant, the Idaho Department of Correction learned it no longer had enough of the powerful sedative it needed on hand to put him to death.
Prison officials expended the majority of their prior stock of lethal injection drugs in February when they called off Creech’s execution because they couldn’t find a suitable vein for an IV, but had already drawn the chemical into syringes for use.
The spent drugs cost taxpayers more than $33,000.
