States in the US are once again facing questions over death penalty laws after more botched executions.
In Alabama, executions have been paused after a third failed execution in just the last four years.
Earlier this month, Alabama failed to put to death convicted hitman, Kenneth Eugene Smith, who killed a preacher's wife in 1988.
The execution failed when state officials struggled for over an hour to place an IV line to deliver a lethal injection.
Smith's team appealed to the US Supreme Court for a stay of execution, but this was rejected at 10:23pm. Alabama was unable to administer the drugs before the midnight deadline.
By the time the execution was called off, Smith had been trapped on the gurney for several hours and multiple attempts had been made to place an IV.
Image:
Vasha Hunt/AP/REX/Shutterstock)Smith told The Atlantic the experience felt like he was being jabbed with something that felt like "life a knife" which he should not have been able to feel as he had already been given an anaesthetic.
Governor Kay Ivey sought to pause the carrying out of capital punishment in the state until a "top-to-bottom" reivew had been carried out.
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Alabama Department of Corrections)“For the sake of the victims and their families, we’ve got to get this right," Ivey said, and corrections Commissioner John Hamm committed to the review.
The US has a long history of botched executions. Here are some of the most striking.
The execution of Clayton Lockett
Clayton Lockett was convicted of the kidnap, rape and murder of 19-year-old Stephanie Neiman.
He shot her with a shotgun but it did not kill immediately and one of Lockett's accomplices buried her alive in a shallow grave.
Lockett was left writhing in pain for 43 minutes before his execution was eventually called off. He died from a heart attack.
His botched execution was particularly horrific and shed a concerning light on Oklahoma - no state executes more people per capita - and its use of a lethal three-drug cocktail.
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Google)Ethical issues were also raised when a doctor was asked to step forward and help administer the drugs.
Lockett's prison clothing and underwear had been cut away to administer a line into his groin.
Eventually, Lockett began to write on the gurney, twisting his body and managing to get his head up from the bed as far as the restraints would allow.
As the execution was paused, a massive bump was sticking out of Lockett's groin, said to be around the size of a tennis ball.
The drug midazolam, a sedative, appeared to have dislodged from the vein and was leaking into Lockett's groin tissue.
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Jam Press)As a needle was pushed back into his groin, blood spurted over the doctor.
Other drugs involved in the cocktail include one aimed at paralysing the inmate.
Anti-death penalty advocates question why this is needed, given the use of a sedative.
Essentially, there are concerns that the sedative does not stop the inmate from feeling pain, but are paralysed anyway so they are unable to communicate their distress.
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Wikipedia)Similarly, Oklahoma prisoner Charles Warner was given the wrong drug in his execution in 2014 and said he felt like he was "on fire".
Despite concerns that the lethal injection method is unconstitutional, a judge upheld a previous ruling in June this year that said the eighth amendment "does not guarantee a prisoner a painless death".
Oklahoma was forced to stop its executions for around six years. It still uses the three-drug cocktail.
The wrongful death of George Stinney
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Carolina skeletons)George Stinney's execution wasn't botched because of a technical fault, but because he was 14.
Stinney's execution was plain sailing by all accounts but was botched because he was eventually exonerated.
In 1944, South Carolina's Jim Crow laws loomed large over the state. Segregation and racism were rife at the time two white girls were killed in rural Alcolu.
Betty June Binnicker, 11, and Mary Emma Thames, seven, were found in a shallow grave in the woods.
They had been beaten to death and suspicion fell on the 14-year-old black boy who had seen the pair the day before their deaths.
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Getty Images)Police said Stinney confessed to the crimes, but his sisters said he was coerced.
The teenager was convicted in a trial that lasted around three hours and the defence did not appeal or present witnesses.
A jury that consisted of 12 white men took ten minutes to decide the young boy's fate.
Years later a judge ruled that Stinney, who had to sit on a phone book during his execution because he was too small, had not been given due process.
Judge Carmen Mullen: "Given the particularised circumstances of Stinney's case, I find by a preponderance of the evidence standard, that a violation of the defendant's procedural due process rights tainted his prosecution."
Firing squad executions
Image:
murderpedia.org)Firing squad executions, like all methods of capital punishment, has the potential to go wrong.
On May 16, 1879, condemned murderer Wallace Wilkerson insisted on not being tied down so he could "die like a man, looking my executioners right in the eye."
Despite protests from the sheriff, the execution went ahead, but each of the four bullets that hit him missed his heart and left him writhing on the ground.
"Oh, my God! My God! They have missed," he is reported to have screamed. He wasn't pronounced dead until 27 minutes later.
Electric chair executions
The electric chair is perhaps the most infamous form of execution, though was last used in Virginia to execute Robert Gleason in January 2013.
Willie Francis was strapped to Louisiana's electric chair known as 'Gruesome Gertie' in 1946.
Just 17, he somehow survived the execution and yelled at guards to take it off.
Image:
AFP/Getty Images)He described the experience: "It felt like a hundred and a thousand needles and pins were pricking in me all over and my left leg felt like somebody was cutting it with a razor blade. I could feel my arms jumping at my sides."
Francis was another defendant whose lawyer did not cross-examine witnesses and he was convicted by an all-white jury.
A popular white pharmacist named Andrew Thomas was shot in Francis’ hometown of St. Martinville, but a police investigation proved fruitless.
Eventually, the sheriff called on higher-ups to arrest "any man" and police claim they found Thomas' ID and wallet on Francis.
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Wikipedia)He was executed a year later after his case went to the US Supreme Court; he lost in a 5-4 decision.
The gruesome electric chair method also caused problems for Jesse Tafero in 1990.
Flames erupted from his head in the execution chamber in Florida and many states reviewed their use of the chair.
Taferos' chair was nicknamed 'Old Sparky' and one inmate reported they could smell burning flesh for several days after Tafero's death.
The execution of Joe Nathan James
Earlier this year, inmate Joe Nathan James was put through the "longest execution ever," according to one human rights group.
The case of James is the latest to highlight real concern over Alabama and other states where capital punishment still exists.
James was executed on July 28 this year for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Faith Hall. His execution was mysteriously delayed by three hours.
Critics of the execution process highlight how inmates are not allowed a representative with them as they are prepared for their execution, so the process takes place behind closed doors.
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ADOC)A report by The Atlantic alleged his "hands and wrists had been burst by needles, in every place one can bend or flex," suggesting there was trouble preparing James for execution.
An expert told the new outlet a 'cutdown' was likely performed on him, though the state denies this.
A cutdown is a procedure in which part of the body is sliced open in order for a vein to be found.
Commissioner John Hamm claimed the reported delay was "nothing out of the ordinary."
Image:
ABC 33/40)An independent investigation by experts was funded by the human rights group Reprieve.
They said James "essentially underwent two executions: a torturous procedure behind closed doors then a theatrical performance for witnesses."
A spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) Kelly Betts, said: "ADOC’s execution team strictly followed the established protocol."
The family of James' victim had fought for him to avoid his death sentence.
