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Inmate Who Survived Execution Attempt 'Wanted To Die' During Procedure, According To Medical Report

Inmate Who Survived Execution Attempt 'Wanted To Die' During Procedure, According To Medical Report

The man's attorney has said the failed execution amounts to 'torture'

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

WARNING: CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGERY

A death row inmate who survived an execution has said the pain he was in left him wanting to die.

Doyle Lee Hamm was due to be executed by the state via lethal injection last month but the procedure had to be stopped.

Hamm's attorney Bernard Harcourt claims that the state was forced to cancel the execution after medical staff were unable to find a usable vein to administer the drugs, the Independent reports.

Hamm was left with at least 11 puncture marks, according to a medical examination report filed by Harcourt

Medical report
Medical report

Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections Jeff Dunn originally said staff decided to cancel the execution as "they didn't in their judgement think that they could obtain the appropriate veinous access before the warrant would expire."

However, he later said it was stopped because of the 'lateness of the hour'. He added that the execution was 'in no way botched'.

Harcourt disagrees, saying: "This went beyond ghoulish justice and cruel and unusual punishment.

Medical report
Medical report

"It was torture. It was pecisely the kind of torture that the UN Human Rights Rapporteurs had warned about to the Governor of Alabama."

In a medical report written by Dr Mark Heath, who examined Hamm three days after the execution, it states that Hamm claims he remembers being 'stabbed repeatedly' in his legs while staff tried to find a vein. He then said the team moved to his groin; adding that procedure was 'extremely painful'.

An excerpt from the report reads: "During this time Mr Hamm began to hope that the doctor would succeed in obtaining IV access so that Mr Hamm could 'get it over with' because he preferred to die rather than to continue to experience the ongoing severe pain."

Court Documents
Court Documents

It goes on to document Hamm's saying he was left 'shivering and trembling from fear, as well as the cold'. He claims he has had nightmares and flashbacks, following the failed procedure.

In a statement, Harcourt said: "This was clearly a botched execution that can only be accurately described as torture."

A spokesperson from the Alabama department of corrections said the department refuted the claims that Hamm was tortured.

WATCH: DEATH ROW KILLER SOBS IN FINAL INTERVIEW JUST HOURS BEFORE EXECUTION


Hamm, 61, was sentenced to the death penalty for fatally shooting motel clerk Patrick Cunningham in 1987 during a robbery, where he made off with $410.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Death Row, US News