Botched Lethal Injection

Problematic injections.

As with the introduction of any new method, lethal injection has not been without some seriously botched executions some of which are examined below. It is clearly, by no means, a fool proof method but perhaps the learning curve has now been surmounted as reports of problems seem to have greatly reduced.

March 14th, 1984 James Autrey. Texas.

Autrey took at least 10 minutes to die after the chemicals began to be injected. Throughout much of those ten minutes he was fully conscious and complained of pain. This was caused by the catheters clogging so delaying the transmission of the chemicals. It is also probable that the needle either did not enter the vein or passed through it. When the lethal chemicals enter the muscles instead they cause considerable pain.

March 13th, 1985. Stephen Peter Morin. Texas.

Technicians had to probe both arms and legs with needles for 45 minutes before they found the vein.

August 20th, 1986 Randy Woolls. Texas.

A drug addict, Woolls had to help the execution technicians find a good vein for the execution.

June 24th, 1987 Elliot Johnson. Texas.

It took 35 minutes to insert the catheter into his vein.

December 13th, 1988 Raymond Landry. Texas.

Pronounced dead 40 minutes after being strapped to the execution gurney and 24 minutes after the drugs first started flowing into his arms. Two minutes into the execution, the catheter came out of Landry's vein, spraying the chemicals across the room towards witnesses. The execution team had to reinsert the catheter into the vein. The curtain was closed for 14 minutes so witnesses could not observe the intermission.

May 24th, 1989. Stephen McCoy. Texas.

McCoy had such a violent physical reaction to the drugs (heaving chest, gasping, choking, etc.) that one of the witnesses (male) fainted, crashing into and knocking over another witness. The Texas Attorney General admitted the inmate "seemed to have somewhat stronger reaction", adding "The drugs might have been administered in a heavier dose or more rapidly."

September 12th, 1990. Charles Walker. Illinois.

According to Dr. Edward A. Brunner over 5 minutes after the activation of Illinois's lethal injection machine, and more than two minutes after the plungers had injected the chemicals, Walkers' heart had not stopped, the Illinois Department of Corrections officials ordered the viewing blinds closed. The witnesses were not aware that Walker had not died, and were not told that there was a problem. Without removing Walker from the equipment, officials inspected the equipment and discovered a kink in the intravenous line. They straightened out the line, and a short time later Walker's heart stopped.

January 24th, 1992. Rickey Ray Rector. Arkansas.

It took medical staff more than 50 minutes to find a suitable vein in Rector's arm. Witnesses were not permitted to view this scene, but reported hearing Rector's loud moans throughout the process. During the ordeal Rector tried to help the medical personnel find a vein. Attendants were about to prepare a "cut-down," when a vein in his right hand was finally discovered - an hour after the procedure began. The administrator of the Arkansas Department of Corrections medical programs said (paraphrased by a newspaper reporter) "the moans did come as a team of two medical people that had grown to five worked on both sides of his body to find a vein."

March 10th, 1992. Robyn Lee Parks. Oklahoma.

Parks had a violent reaction to the drugs. Two minutes after the drugs were administered, the muscles in his jaws, neck, and abdomen began to react spasmodically for approximately 45 seconds. Parks continued to gasp and violently gag. Death came eleven minutes after the drugs were administered. Wayne Greene a reporter on the Tulsa World newspaper described Park's execution as looking "scary and ugly."

April 23rd, 1992. Billy Wayne White. Texas.

It took 47 minutes for the prison staff to find a suitable vein, and White eventually had to help them.

May 7th, 1992. Justin Lee May. Texas.

May had an unusually violent reaction to the lethal drugs. According to Robert Wernsman, a reporter for the Huntsville newspaper, The Item, May gasped, coughed and reared against his heavy leather restraints, coughing once again before his body froze. Associated Press reporter Michael Graczyk wrote "He went into a coughing spasm, groaned and gasped, lifted his head from the death chamber gurney and would have arched his back if he had not been belted down. After he stopped breathing, his eyes and mouth remained open".

May 10th, 1994. John Wayne Gacy. Illinois.

John Wayne Gacy who had tortured and murdered 33 young men and boys during the 1970s was executed by lethal injection at the Stateville penitentiary in Joliet, Illinois. After the injection began, one of the three lethal drugs clogged the tube leading into Gacy's arm, and therefore stopped flowing. Blinds covering the window through which witnesses observed the execution were then drawn. The clogged tube was replaced with a new one, the blinds were opened, and the execution process resumed. Gacy actually took 18 minutes to die. Anaesthesiologists blamed the problem on the inexperience of prison officials who were conducting the execution, saying that proper procedures taught in IV 101 would have prevented the error.

May 3rd, 1995. Emmitt Foster. Missouri.

Foster was not pronounced dead until 30 minutes after the flow of chemicals began into his arms. After seven minutes the blinds were closed to prohibit the witnesses from viewing the scene; they were not reopened until three minutes after death pronounced. According to the coroner who pronounced death, the problem was caused by the tightness of the leather straps that bound Foster to the execution gurney; it was so tight that the flow of chemicals into the veins was restricted. It was several minutes after a prison worker finally loosened the strap that death was pronounced. The coroner entered the death chamber twenty minutes after the execution began, noticed the problem, and told the officials to loosen the strap so then execution could proceed.

May 3rd, 2000. Christina Marie Riggs, Arkansas.

Christina Marie Riggs was the first woman to be executed in the state of Arkansas. The execution began 18 minutes late because of the difficulty in finding a suitable vein to insert the catheters into. She agreed to have the catheters placed in veins in her wrists. It is not unusual for the prisoner to have help staff in this way.

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