'Gory, botched': Alabama's aborted execution of inmate was bloody, says lawyer

[turbinetree]

An execution in the US was aborted last week after the inmate was left with 10 puncture wounds when medical personnel were unable to find a vein after two and a half hours of trying. The failed attempts left behind a bloodied death chamber, the inmate’s lawyer said.

On Thursday, Alabama tried to execute by lethal injection convicted murderer Doyle Hamm, 61, who has spent more than half his life on death row. After about two and a half hours of trying, the state called the execution off because issues with Hamm’s veins could not be resolved before a death warrant expired at midnight.

“It was a gory, botched execution. They gave up when they could not find a vein,” Bernard Harcourt, a professor at the Columbia University law school who is representing Hamm, said by email on Sunday.

The execution has come under federal court review, with a US district judge calling for the state to preserve evidence, including the clothes Hamm was wearing.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/26/gory-botched-alabamas-aborted-execution-of-inmate-was-bloody-says-lawyer

This is just sadistic................next up on the list of methods to do this shit in Alabama and other states .............is fucking nitrogen gas, with a bag over the person's face hooked up to a hose

[ProudLib72]

1. I hear an AR-15 would make quick work of it

Hmmmmmmmm....

Too gory? But firing squad is legal in Utah.

[packman]

2. Yes, they should have just shot him in the head

like he did to that night clerk in the robbery that netted him a bit over $400.

[gopiscrap]

3. Bullshit...no death penalty period

[USALiberal]

6. Wow, my idiot GOP brother in law said the same thing! Congrats! Nt

[edhopper]

12. As long as you are ok

with innocent people being put to death too, it's all good.

[packman]

17. I don't understand your post

are you suggesting that POS was innocent? He SHOT an innocent desk clerk in the head, the proof and I.D. was without question. He was guilty, he took a life. He was and still is a piece of trash.

[edhopper]

22. As long as we have the death penalty

innocent people will be executed. Some that everyone was 100% sure were guilty.

You have to accept that if you are pro death penalty.

[Takket]

4. don't construe this the wrong way but........

How hard is it to kill someone?

Your dentist can give you a gas that will knock you out in a few seconds, once they are asleep administer some lethal gas and they will die without even knowing waht is happening. or like someone else said, shoot them in the head and it is over in an instant. Why lethal injection which seems pretty damn sadistic to me. or do they knock you out before they inject you? ug, i don't know. just seems like there has to be a way that is more humane and more efficient if you are going to do it at all.

[moriah]

14. Theoretically, they assume the worst will be getting the IV in. In this case...

... "the worst" was surely painful and traumatic, and I don't know if they have the Constitutional right to order someone to have surgery to place a port just to kill them.

But also, with drug manufacturers not wanting to be associated with state-sponsored death, the best way to truly knock a person out through the lethal injection process, high-acting barbiturates, aren't being used often.

Instead, they're using midazolam in Alabama and other states. You might have had it as "anesthesia" in combination with Demerol to have a wisdom tooth removed, etc. But it's present not because it causes unconsciousness -- even with opiates it doesn't. The patient may attempt to talk through the procedures. It seems like you were "out", though, because midazolam, as a benzodiazepine, affects encoding of memories. It may have hurt like all fucking hell, but you don't remember it.

This means people are given something that puts them in a sleep they can be woken up from, instead of essentially a chemically induced coma, before administering the drug that causes paralysis of all muscles (including breathing). Ever heard of "anesthesia awareness"? People operated on who weren't knocked out well enough, but because they were going under full anesthesia and would be intubated, had been given a paralytic drug? After that second shot appears to be effective, they administer the third to stop the heart.

Even when you have good veins, doing lethal injections with midazolam as the sedative is unconscionable. He may be far luckier to have been just jabbed a ton with a needle.

FYI, he'd appealed because they knew they wouldn't be able to get a vein. This proves they were right. He's asking for his death to be from an oral overdose in his appeals, and they admit they don't have the drugs to do it orally -- barbiturates. But they only manage to use midazolam for intravenous execution because the intravenous paralytic sets in before oxygen hunger wakes the person up. We don't see the horror, but I'm sure it's happening.

I'm against the death penalty because even if a jury system may be the best we have, it's not foolproof and states spend more money fighting death penalty appeals than they would on keeping them locked up forever. We can't take back an execution, and we spend so much trying to keep from executing the innocent but still have. But I'm especially against it when you're not using the lethal injection protocol the jury originally issuing the sentence thought would be done -- a barbiturate coma before the killing.

[Takket]

23. very informative, thanks!

[MichMary]

5. I don't support the death penalty

in any way, shape, or form.

But--seriously?? I have crappy veins, and I know it has taken medical personnel all of 2.5 hours, at least ten punctures, and involved probably half a dozen (or more) people to get in IV in me. I never thought it was sadistic or gory, and it never left any room bloody.

[Kaleva]

8. Drawing blood from me is easy but inserting an IV can be a problem.

I was getting prepped for a colonoscopy and two different nurses tried on both of my hands till successful.

[MichMary]

11. There was one time

I told the people who were about to stick the IV in me exactly where it would be easiest--the inside of my left elbow. They wouldn't listen to me. In fact, kind of sneered. They wanted to put it in my hand. a couple of lab techs, nurses, an M.D, all tried, and failed. They finally had to call in a nurse anesthetist, who managed to insert it, exactly where I had told them in the first place. I was black and blue from my elbows to my hands.

Another time the needle BENT on the way in. My veins are scarred from chemo, so it's almost always a problem.

[Grammy23]

13. Whenever I go for lab work,

I often tell or show the technician exactly where they are likely to be successful on the first try. Sometimes they listen, sometimes they don’t. It is in the upper crook on my right elbow. Works like a charm nearly every time and is barely felt. Like you, I had chemo in that arm 27 years ago. Plus, my blood vessels are small and tend to roll. So it can be a challenge starting an IV or drawing blood without numerous attempts. So I figure if I can give the tech (or nurse) a heads up, it will save us all a lot of time and discomfort. But some are too proud or stubborn to listen. 😒

And whoever said it should be easy to put someone to death with chemicals or gas was right. People overdose ever few minutes in this country. How hard can it be? Not that I approve of it. Just stating the obvious when it comes to carrying out the death penalty.

[rsdsharp]

7. It sounds like what happened to me in 1979

when I went for a Wassermann test before I got married. After getting stuck about thirty times they just asked me if I had syphilis. They don't even do the test anymore.

[Kaleva]

9. What was your answer?

[rsdsharp]

10. Let's just say I've been married for 38 years. nt

[Kaleva]

21. Lol! Good answer!

[LeftInTX]

15. Sounds no worse than IVs

Actually starting IVs is messier cuz you're in a hurry to get fluids or IV meds going.

[NCTraveler]

16. State sanctioned murder.

I don't care if I was confident that the individual felt absolutely no pain or discomfort. It's barbaric.

[Azathoth]

18. I've never understood why we don't just shoot them

Electrocution, hanging, gas chambers, Rube Goldberg-esque lethal injection machines...

Put them against a wall, offer them a last cigarette, and then shoot them. Barbaric? Maybe, but it's honest and it doesn't torture the prisoner like this kabuki theater.

[maveric]

19. Or just use heroin.

A big shot and you’re gone.

[jmowreader]

20. Fucking nitrogen gas kills quickly and painlessly

If you breathe pure nitrogen for more than a few seconds, you will die of asphyxiation. Your body will suffer no distress because air is already four-fifths nitrogen. If they HAVE to keep on executing people, this is the stuff to use.