Gunman sues state over failed execution

He should die. Alan M.* (57) killed three people in a shooting at his workplace in 1999. During the trial that followed, he was sentenced to death. But the execution on September 22 did not go as planned – it did not end with the death of M. The convicted murderer is now going to court. The 57-year-old is suing the American state of Alabama, ABC reports.

His lawyers have described the attempted execution as physical and mental pain and demand that there be no second attempt at execution. In the face of this accident, he must live. According to his lawyers, M. was taken to the execution room around 10 p.m. After he was strapped to the stretcher, two prison guards reportedly tried unsuccessfully to find a vein to inject him with the deadly needle. They “repeatedly poked needles into his arms, legs, feet and hands, and once used a cell phone flashlight to look for a vein,” the court documents said.

A third officer arrived and began punching the detainee in the neck, apparently looking for a vein there. After failed attempts, the three men ended the “torment” and left the death room after a loud knock came from the observation room, the court file said.

He hung vertically on the stretcher

The convict was then straightened by a prison guard. According to Alan M., he hung there for about 20 minutes before being lowered and was told his execution should be halted.

“Mr. M. felt nauseous, disoriented and confused,” the court documents say. “He was deeply shocked by the sight of the officials staring at him in silence from the observation room as he hung vertically on the stretcher.” Some of his wounds were still bleeding.

In a previous court hearing, Alan M., who weighs 159 kilograms, testified that medical personnel always had trouble accessing his veins. That’s why he wanted to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia, a newly approved method of execution that the state has not yet tried.

Alabama executions continue to fail

The shooter’s lawyers now want to stop the second attempt at his execution. Alabama has inflicted on Mr. “the very needless and willful infliction of pain that the Eighth Amendment seeks to prohibit.” The long agony is an insolence. “What is a constitutionally long time according to the defendant to put needles in someone to kill him?” the killer’s lawyers said.

In addition, it is not the first time that an intravenous execution has failed in Alabama. The July 2022 execution of Joe J. took more than three hours to begin. Also, the execution of Doyle H. (†64) was canceled after it was not possible to get an intravenous line. H. died in 2021, but from the effects of cancer. (Hi)

* Name known