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Things can go wrong from time to time. But, for the death penalty when things go wrong, no one seems to care.
Botched executions are those involving unanticipated problems or delays that caused, at least arguably, unnecessary agony for the prisoner or that reflect gross incompetence of the executioner. According to the Death Penalty Information Center 3% of U.S. executions in the period from 1890 to 2010 were botched and lethal injection is one of the highest of botched executions.
For this list, I have selected three of the most gruesome cases of botched executions that will make you second guess on whether the death penalty is essential.
Please be advised that this information is graphic and is not meant for everyone’s viewing.
On December 13, 2006. 55-year-old Ángel Nieves Díaz was sentenced to death for the robbery and murder of a strip club owner back in 1979. During his execution, were instead pushed through the blood vessels into surrounding soft tissue.
He was given a rare second dose of deadly chemicals as he took more than twice the usual time to succumb to the injection. The substances that were injected into Díaz had given him burn marks on both of his arms.
The execution lasted for 34 minutes.
61-year-old Doyle Lee Hamm was convicted in 1987 of committing murder during a robbery and sentenced to death.
On February 22, while being prepped for lethal intravenous execution at the Holman Correctional Facility. Staff and medical personnel tried and failed for 2½ hours to find veins in his groin, feet, and legs.
Hamm had suffered from a total of 11 puncture wounds on his body in his legs and right groin area. These wounds have caused him to sever bleeding and pain during his execution, and six out of the 11 puncture wounds had partial overlap.
38-year-old Clayton Lockett was convicted in 2000 of murder, rape, and kidnapping of a 19-year-old girl.
Before his execution, he was tased and dragged from his cell after acting erratically by holding a razor blade and cutting along his arm and injecting pills.
He was given an untested mixture of drugs that had not previously been used for executions. During the process, he appeared to be groaning, convulsing, and spoke during the process and attempted to rise from the execution table fourteen minutes into the procedure, despite having been declared unconscious. Lockett died 43 minutes after the first execution drug was administered on April 29 at the Oklahoma state penitentiary while suffering from a heart attack.
One of the prison wardens described the scene as “a bloody mess.”
Whether you are for or against the death penalty, this is an issue that can not be ignored. It shouldn’t matter if these people deserve it or not; this is cruel and unusual punishment. These executions almost last for an hour. To be strapped down again, your will and injected with chemicals supposed to kill within less than a minute going further because of the mistreatment and poor protocol.
That being said, I am not saying that these people are innocent and should not be held accountable for their crimes. Punishment should still be a given. Death, however, should not be an option.
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