A federal judge heard arguments Tuesday morning in a lawsuit brought by three news organizations that say Idaho prison officials are unconstitutionally hiding parts of lethal injection executions from public view.

Louisiana is preparing this week to execute a man by nitrogen gas, the first execution in the state in 15 years.

Missouri’s status as one of the most active death penalty states is about to change for one simple reason: The state is running out of inmates to execute.

For nearly an hour, Thomas Eugene Creech lay strapped to a table in an Idaho execution chamber as medical team members poked and prodded at his arms and legs, hands and feet, trying to find a vein through which they could end his life.

Idaho halted the execution of serial killer Thomas Eugene Creech on Wednesday after medical team members repeatedly failed to find a vein where they could establish an intravenous line to carry out the lethal injection.

For nearly 50 years, Idaho’s prison staffers have been serving Thomas Eugene Creech three meals a day, checking on him during rounds and taking him to medical appointments.

A U.S. appeals court panel has declined to delay Idaho’s scheduled execution next week of one of the nation’s longest-serving death row inmates.