Death Row Inmate Suffers Horrifying Injuries From Botched Execution, Pain Left Him ‘Begging To Die’
A death row inmate suffered a botched execution, leaving him in excruciating pain that made him wished for death.
The inmate, identified as Doyle Lee Hamm, 61, was due to be executed via lethal injection on February 22 for killing an Alabama motel worker in 1987. However, the procedure had to be called off after doctors failed to find a usable vein to administer the lethal injection.
Apparently, Hamm’s attorney, Bernard Harcourt, had already warned authorities ahead of time that cancer treatment had left him with compromised veins and that he is likely to deal with “cruel and needless pain.”
As a result, the 61-year-old convict was left with at least 11 puncture marks in the legs and groin. Hamm was also too weak to stand after the ordeal and was left bleeding from the groin and urinating blood.
Now, Harcourt has filed a legal lawsuit against the Alabam Department of Corrections, claiming that Hamm’s botched execution amounted to torture.
The complaint filed on Monday detailed the horrifying account of Hamm’s ordeal. In the photos obtained by the Daily Mail, the convict can be seen with multiple puncture wounds on his legs and groin. Several bruises were also visible on his skin.
In an interview with Dr. Mark Heath, an anesthesiologist from New York, Hamm claims he was taken into a chamber on the night of the execution. He was then strapped down to a gurney.
Death Row inmate's injuries from painful botched execution are laid bare in new pictures https://t.co/s7cGAfXtHH pic.twitter.com/19fIXJxKB8
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) March 7, 2018
Then, doctors attempted to find a vein in his legs, stabbing him with needles at least five times. Hamm claims that each puncture included several “probing advances” with the needle.
At one point, the probing needle persisted for about 10 minutes and that he could feel them “rolling and mashing” the tissue in his leg. Hamm also estimates that two other men spent at least 30 minutes attempting to put IV in his lower extremities.
When they failed to find a viable vein, another pair of doctors stepped in and used an ultrasound device to scan his groin. Hamm reportedly felt multiple needle insertions into his groin and pelvis, which he described as “extremely painful.”
A death row inmate whose execution was "botched and bloody," as the inmate's lawyer put it, is asking not to be put to death https://t.co/IdvDO1Frr0 pic.twitter.com/cRZcTMpvtW
— CNN (@CNN) March 7, 2018
Hamm claims the pain was so severe, he just wanted to “get it over with,” adding that he preferred to die than to continue feeling the pain he was put through. It is not clear whether local anesthetic was administered prior to the procedure.
After some time, an official called off the execution, despite doctors’ protest. They were then ordered to get out of the room without even attending to Hamm’s injuries, including a bleeding groin.
Meanwhile, Hamm’s defense team is now asking for relief from his “now unconstitutional sentence of death,” CNN reported. They claimed that Hamm experienced a “constitutionally prohibited cruel, unnecessarily painful, slow, and lingering process to death.”
Hamm is also trying to ditch the second execution, claiming that it would be double jeopardy, protected by the Fifth Amendment, which states that no person shall “be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb.”
