Though opinions are divided on the matter, the death penalty still exists in a nunber of states across the US. Inmates who are sentenced to die can be executed in a number of different ways depending on which state they're convicted in - from electrocution to hanging to firing squad - but the lethal injection is the most common method.
Unfortunately, it doesn't have a 100 per cent success rate.
61-year-old Doyle Lee Hamm, who was sentenced to death back in 1987, was due to be executed in Alabama. However, complications arose when medical staff could not obtain "appropriate venous access", and they called off the procedure at 11:30 pm.
The inmate's lawyer, Bernard Harcourt, is now saying that the execution was botched, and that he had previously argued in court filings that the lethal injection would be difficult to administer to Hamm due to pre-existing medical conditions.
In July, Harcourt had stated that his client's veins had been severely compromised due to lymphoma, hepatitis, and prior drug use - but the execution went ahead anyway.
In his latest court filing, the lawyer revealed that two executioners tried multiple times to insert an intravenous line on both of Hamm's ankles and legs, before proceeding to attempt to connect the line through his groin. Two-and-a-half hours after the Supreme Court had cleared the execution to proceed, however, the prison officials announced that they had been forced to give up.
Speaking about his client, Harcourt said that: "He’s in great pain from yesterday evening, physically, from all of the attempts to access his veins in his lower extremities and in his groin."
The following day, US District Judge Karon Bowdre ordered a medical examination of the convicted inmate in order to determine the cause of the failed execution.
Meanwhile, Jeff Dunn - the state prison commissioner - has stated that the execution was delayed due to an issue with the timing. "I wouldn’t necessarily characterize what we had tonight as a problem," he said. "The only indication I have is that in their medical judgment it was more of a time issue given the late hour."
The 61-year-old had been waiting on death row for decades after murdering a motel clerk named Patrick Cunningham in 1987. Hamm had shot Cunningham once in the head while he was working the night shift at a Cullman motel and then proceeded to rob the place. He got away with just $410.
The murderer was later apprehended by police, at which point he confessed to the crimes. Two other accomplices also testified against Hamm in exchange for lighter sentences, meaning that he was the only one sentenced to death out of the trio.
Hamm is not the only person to have experienced a botched execution, however.
In fact, it is estimated that three per cent executions in the states between 1890 and 2010 were performed incorrectly in some way. Surprisingly, the lethal injection had the highest rate of failure.
Two UN human rights experts had previously voiced their concerns about Hamm's execution before it went ahead, warning that "attempts to insert needles into Mr Hamm’s veins to carry out the lethal injection would inflict pain and suffering that may amount to torture."
