Doyle Lee Hamm was stabbed 11 times in the legs and groin with needles during a botched execution in Alabama last month
A Death Row inmate wished for death during a botched execution that saw him stabbed 11 times in the legs and groin with needles.
Doyle Lee Hamm, who was due to be executed on February 22 for the murder of Patrick Cunningham, but the procedure had to be called off after doctors were unable to find a vein.
Hamm was too weak to stand after the ordeal, was left bleeding from the groin and urinated blood an hour later, a medical examiner’s report says.
Bernard Harcourt, Hamm’s attorney, had warned ahead of time that cancer treatment had left him with compromised veins and that he was likely to be subjected to ‘cruel and needless pain.’
Harcourt has now launched a legal suit against the Alabama Department of Corrections, saying Hamm’s treatment amounted to torture.
On Monday a medical examiner’s report including new images of Hamm’s injuries were filed which give an account of his suffering.
According to an interview with Hamm carried out by Dr Mark Heath, an anesthesiologist from New York, on the night of the execution he was taken into a chamber with around nine people inside and strapped down to a gurney.
Two men dressed in hospital scrubs then took a leg each and worked their way up attempting to find a vein.
A medical examiner’s report details how two doctors took a leg each in an attempt to find a vein, with one needle going so deep it hit Hamm’s shin bone
After medics were unable to find a vein in Hamm’s legs another team with an ultrasound machine attempted to find a vein in his groin, leading to six more puncture wounds
In total he was stabbed five times, three on one leg and two on the other.
Hamm said that each puncture involved multiple ‘probing advances’ with the needle, during which it was partially withdrawn then reinserted.
‘The continued probing was painful,’ the report notes. ‘One of the probing needle advances was extremely painful and he felt that the “shin bone” in his right calf was reached by a needle.
‘He estimates that the probing in his right calf persisted for about 10 minutes and states that he could feel them “rolling and mashing” the tissue in his leg.
‘Overall he estimates that the two men spent about 30 minutes attempting IV access in his lower extremities.’
After the execution team admitted they could not gain access to a vein in his legs, a second team was brought into the room with an ultrasound device.
The second team, consisting of a man and a woman, then began scanning his groin for a vein before making a mark on his skin.
Hamm (left) was due to be executed for the 1987 murder of Patrick Cunningham (right), a motel clerk who was shot dead during a robbery
The report says each puncture wound included multiple ‘probing attempts’ as the needle was partially withdrawn and then pushed back in
‘The doctor advanced a needle into Mr. Hamm’s groin,’ the report goes on.
‘Mr. Hamm felt multiple needle insertions, and with each insertion he felt multiple probing advance/withdrawal movements.
‘It is not clear whether local anesthetic was administered.
‘Mr. Hamm felt the needle penetrating deep into his groin and pelvis. He stated that this probing was extremely painful.’
‘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.’
Doctors had to request several new needles and at one point Hamm began bleeding from the groin. The blood was enough to soak a pad which had to be replaced.
After some time as official in the room speaking on a cellphone said the execution was being called off, despite doctors protesting that they wanted to continue.
The doctors were told to ‘get out’ and left the room without applying pressure to the bleeding area, or giving instructions for Hamm’s treatment.
Hamm said the ordeal was so painful he just wanted doctors to ‘get it over with’ because he would rather die than endure the pain
Hamm had to be lifted off the gurney because he was unable to stand and taken back to his holding cell before being escorted to the infirmary, where bandages were applied to his wounds.
Around an hour after the execution he urinated blood, and also later developed a chest cough.
Hamm’s botched execution is the latest in a string which have gained controversy for the type of drugs used and the effect they had on the subject.
Clayton Lockett spent 40 minutes writhing in agony before dying of a heart attack after he was given a lethal injection in 2014.
It was the first time Oklahoma used the drug midazolam as the first element in its execution drug combination.
The following year convicted rapist and murderer Charles Warner was given the wrong drug during his execution in the state.
Oklahoma used potassium acetate – not potassium chloride, as required under state protocol – and Warner said his body felt like it was ‘on fire’.