India, Feb. 29 -- Idaho's attempt to execute one of the nation's longest-serving death row inmates, Thomas Creech, was halted on Wednesday after the medical team could not find a suitable vein for the lethal injection after trying 10 times in both of his arms and legs.

Creech, 73, who has been in prison since 1974 for multiple murders, was scheduled to die for the 1981 killing of a fellow prisoner with a sock filled with batteries. He is also the prime suspect in a cold case from 1974 in California that was recently solved.

The U.S. Supreme Court had rejected several appeals from Creech's lawyers, who argued that he had ineffective assistance of counsel and that the state's execution protocol was unconstitutional.

However, the executio...