Lawyer: Aborted Execution Attempt In Alabama Was 'Torture'

ATMORE, AL - A botched execution attempt in Alabama has left a man severely injured and his lawyer claiming his client was "tortured" by the Alabama Department of Corrections. Death row inmate Doyle Lee Hamm had more than a dozen puncture marks in his legs and groin and may have had his bladder and femoral artery penetrated before the lethal injection was called off, according to Hamm's attorney, Bernard Harcourt.

Hamm was scheduled to be executed via lethal injection Thursday, but after the execution team at Holman Correctional Facility could not find a vein suitable for injection, the execution was called off. Harcourt issued a statement after Hamm was examined by a doctor, saying that while Hamm was strapped to the gurney, the IV team "simultaneously worked on both legs at the same time, probing his flesh and inserting needles."

He added, "The IV personnel almost certainly punctured Doyle’s bladder, because he was urinating blood for the next day. They may have hit his femoral artery as well, because suddenly there was a lot of blood gushing out. There were multiple puncture wounds on the ankles, calf, and right groin area, around a dozen."

According to an NBC report, during the execution, Hamm "was lying there praying and hoping that they would succeed because of the pain, and collapsed when they took him off the gurney."

Hamm, 61, was convicted of killing Cullman hotel clerk Patrick Cunningham in January 1987. Recent appeals in his case involved the question of whether cancer had left him healthy enough to be executed without excessive suffering. His advocates had argued that his veins were in such bad shape from drug use and medical issues that it wouldn't be possible for the state to execute him humanely.

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Hamm had a long list of legal issues before committing murder, and his lawyer has argued since 1990 that Hamm's upbringing was a factor, since he grew up in a poor and abusive home. Alabama Media Group presented Hamm's long history of crime and his family's brushes with the law here.

Photo from Alabama Department of Corrections