Alabama prison authorities on Thursday dropped an attempt to lethally inject a man after he had difficulty accessing his veins, two months after the state was charged with ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ when he spent three hours executing Joe Nathan James.
Alabama halted execution of Alan Miller, who was convicted of killing three people in a 1999 shooting, after determining they could not obtain the lethal injection by the deadline from midnight.
“Due to time constraints resulting from the delay in the court proceedings, the execution was canceled once it was determined that the convicted inmate’s veins could not be viewed in accordance with our protocol prior to the expiration of the execution. ‘death warrant,’ John Hamm, Alabama corrections commissioner, said.
Hamm said “accessing the veins was taking a little longer than expected.” He didn’t know how long the team had been trying to establish a connection, but said there were a number of procedures to complete before the team started trying to connect the IV line.
The failed attempt to kill Miller is the second botched execution in Alabama in months.
In July, it took between three and three and a half hours to perform James’ lethal injection, according to an analysis by Reprieve US.
“Alabama officials tortured Joe Nathan James to death for more than three hours trying to put an IV line in place, then covered it up. Instead of stopping and investigating how their actions led to what may have been the longest recorded execution in our country’s history, they instead rushed Alan Miller into the bedroom. execution weeks later and attempted to kill him in secret,” said Maya Foa, director of Reprieve. WE.
“Officials knew it was likely they would subject Alan Miller to the same lengthy and agonizing process as Joe Nathan James and Doyle Lee Hamm. [whose execution was abandoned in 2018 after prison officials spent two and a half hours trying to access his veins] and yet they pushed ahead anyway – adding to the state’s horrific history of botched executions.
“It’s hard to see how they can persist with this broken method of execution that keeps going catastrophically wrong over and over again. In its desperation to execute, Alabama is experimenting on prisoners behind closed doors – surely the definition of cruel and unusual punishment.
Miller’s attempted execution came hours after the United States Supreme Court overturned a stay blocking his execution.
A federal judge stayed the execution after Alabama said it would not be willing to use nitrogen hypoxia to kill Miller, who had requested the use of nitrogen rather than a lethal injection , invoking the fear of needles.
Miller testified that he turned over documents four years ago choosing nitrogen hypoxia as his method of execution, a right in Alabama.
Judge says execution should be stayed after finding it ‘substantially likely’ Miller ‘submitted election form in a timely manner, even though state says he has no record physics of a form”.