How is it possible that Doyle Hamm sentenced to death for murder survived his own execution? Moreover, he was by no means the only one, similar things had happened before in the USA. “Injection of death” in exceptional situations does not work, although the method itself has been used for years and considered effective. In Hamma’s case, those executing the sentence surrendered after two and a half hours. Although the execution was not repeated, the condemned man died four years later. Cancer killed him.
- Doyle Hamm was sentenced to death for manslaughter. He waited for the execution of the sentence for 30 years
- Hamma was originally sentenced to death in the electric chair, but since 2002, Alabama has only been executed by “death injection”
- On February 22, 2018, Hamm was taken to the death chamber. The account of Dr. Heath is a description of many long attempts to kill the convict, which were very painful for himself
- Hamma’s case sparked a court battle. In March 2018, the state of Alabama reached a confidential settlement with him, agreeing not to re-execute
- More information can be found on the Onet homepage
The straight road to jail
Hamm spent over 30 years on death row. He was convicted of killing motel worker Patrick Cunningham in 1987.
Doyle Lee Hamm was born in 1957 in Lancaster, California, the tenth of twelve children of Eula Mae Howell and Major Edward Hamm, a World War II veteran who worked part time as a carpenter and cotton picker (in this case Major is not a military rank, but name). Following his father’s example, Doyle’s six older brothers were imprisoned. From an early age, the elder of the family kept telling them: “If you leave the house not to steal something, you are not Hamm.”
Young Hamm was never particularly bright, his IQ, measured in the sixth grade of elementary school, was 66. This was probably due, at least in part, to the fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS syndrome). When Doyle failed the first competency tests in eighth grade, he eventually became disheartened and dropped out of school.
At the age of 20, he was already behind bars. He was sentenced to five years in prison for robbery in a parking lot in front of a bar. Surely the sentence could have been lower, but the public attorney stated that he was “too busy and overworked to give this case the time and attention it deserved.”
Before he made the ill-fated robbery of a motel worker, Hamm had developed a drug addiction, marriage, and divorce a year after his daughter was born.
He pleaded guilty right away to participating in a motel robbery in Alabama. The motive was theft, but on the occasion of the pistol, caliber 38 fatally shot Patrick Cunningham in the head. Hamm’s gun was stolen earlier during a robbery in the Mississippi.
He took $ 350 from the motel cash register and $ 60 from Cunningham’s wallet.
- The killer virus “escaped” from the laboratory. It was the last smallpox victim
Long years on death row
Hamma’s pro bono lawyer, Bernard E. Harcourt, professor of law and political science at Columbia University, attempted to halt the execution for three decades beginning in 1990. Appealing to the Supreme Court, he argued that his client had virtually no defense and that evidence that could have mitigated the sentence had never been presented. Instead, the court accepted the 89-page ruling word for word copied from a document filed the day before by the state attorney. Hamma was originally sentenced to death in the electric chair, but since 2002, Alabama has only been executed by “death injection”.
In prison, Doyle Hamm began to fall ill. From 2014, he struggled with “extremely aggressive lymphoma.” His lawyer, Bernard Harcourt, warned prison officials that the cancer treatment had damaged the veins, so carrying out a planned execution (with protocol-required double-venous injection) by administering an injection would expose his client to “excruciating and utterly unnecessary pain.” Hepatitis C and previous drug addiction were additional arguments against it.
Anesthesiologist Dr. Mark Heath examined the prisoner in 2017 and found that “his condition does not guarantee access to the veins, except for one in his arm, which is likely to break.” Hamm himself suggested that lethal drugs be administered orally. However, such a procedure would not be in accordance with the record of execution. Meanwhile, Alabama’s attorney general’s office said that Hamma’s cancer was in remission, so execution of the sentence may proceed as planned.
February 22, 2018 at 21 Hamm was taken to the death chamber. Nine people gathered inside. We know what happened next from the anesthesiologist Dr. Heath.
The prisoner was strapped to the bed. Two men in medical smocks took turns lifting his legs, trying to find a vein. At one point, the execution team turned Hamm onto his stomach and tried to make the vessels visible by hitting the back of his legs. In total, the needle was inserted five times, three times in one and two in the other leg. Each puncture required multiple “probing” with the needle, which was partially withdrawn and then reinserted.
- He gave his wife arsenic as he “enjoyed his marriage rights”. Soon she died
In the report on the execution we read: “Probing was painful. One injection in particular, where the needle scratched the tibia of the right calf. ‘ These treatments lasted about 10 minutes, and Hamm said he felt his tissues “crushed”. Approximately 30 minutes elapsed in attempts to gain access to the veins in the lower limbs of the convict.
When it turned out that the cannula could not be placed on the legs, a second unit with an ultrasound machine was inserted into the death chamber. This time the live was searched in the groin. Again, the situation repeated itself: the needles were stuck in the groin eleven times and withdrawn. Local anesthesia was not administered either, as the convict described the probing as extremely painful. He claimed that he wanted the execution to end as soon as possible, as “he preferred to die than to experience such intense and continuous pain longer.”
The medics had to ask for new needles, and Hamm started bleeding. Blood from the groin soaked the pillow that had to be replaced.
Finally, at 23.27 the execution was canceled. Reason? Prison staff “did not have enough time” to find open veins in which to place the cannula before the death sentence expired (that is, before midnight). Doctors were told to leave and they didn’t even treat the bleeding area. The unsuccessful death penalty procedure took two and a half hours.
The prisoner had to be removed from the bed as he was unable to get up on his own. First, he was taken back to the cell, and then to the infirmary, where dressings were applied. Hamm continued to bleed from his groin for about an hour after his disastrous execution, urinated bloody, and had coughing fits. A later medical examination showed that his bladder and femoral artery had probably been punctured.
In the US, prisoners are guaranteed protection from cruel punishments, and the courts can rule on whether specific execution techniques violate this law.
Hamma’s case sparked a court battle over Alabama’s policy of secrecy in executing death sentences. The Media – Associated Press, The Montgomery Advertiser, and Alabama Media Group – sued the state to allow access to the enforcement record and court records relating to it. A U.S. District Court judge for the Northern District of Alabama ordered the disclosure of the protocol and the unsealing of the requested files. In March 2018, the state of Alabama reached a confidential settlement with Hamm, agreeing not to re-execute.
Doyle Hamm died on death row in William C. Holman near Atmore, southern Alabama, on November 27, 2021, was 64 years old.
His lawyers issued a statement saying that they would remember him “for his ability to remain positive even in the face of the most terrible adversities.”
- “He just liked to kill people.” The horror nurse used injections
They also survived an attempted execution
Hamm was the third person to survive a death sentence attempted by “death injection”. In 2009, an attempt was made to execute Romell Broom in Ohio; doctors inserted the needle 18 times with no success. In 2016, the Ohio State Supreme Court approved another attempt, and a new execution date was set – March 16, 2022. However, it will not happen again, as Broom died of COVID-19 in December 2020.
Another non-executed death sentence also occurred in Ohio in November 2017. This time, no vein was found that could be injected into Alva Campbell’s lethal injection. Campbell was terminally ill at the time of his sentence, suffering from lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, respiratory failure and prostate cancer. After the surgery, the prisoner used a stoma bag, was given oxygen four times a day, and due to his limited mobility, he used a walker. His lawyers had previously warned that the execution could turn into a “spectacle” if prison staff did not find a suitable vein.
First, the execution of the sentence was delayed by almost an hour because the condition of the blood vessels had to be assessed. Witnesses claimed that for the next half an hour, prison staff used a device that emitted ultraviolet light to examine the inmate’s shoulders in order to locate hard-to-reach veins. A reporter for the local newspaper Columbus Dispatch, who witnessed the execution attempt, wrote that when a puncture got stuck in the leg, “Campbell threw his head back and seemed to scream in pain.” After four unsuccessful attempts to find a suitable vein, the execution was canceled and the governor decided to postpone it. Eventually, the execution of the sentence was postponed to June 2019, but Campbell was the first to kill Campbell in March 2018.
On the other hand, the most famous failed execution in the history of the United States was the attempt to execute Willie Francis in 1946. The black 15-year-old was accused of murdering a white pharmacist in St. Martinville, Louisiana in 1944 The death sentence was handed down very quickly. It was issued by an all-white jury after the ex officio attorney resigned from the defense. On May 3, 1946, an attempt was made to execute Francis in an electric chair, but an inebriated prison guard incorrectly positioned it. Francis was shocked, but he survived. In 1947, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that making a second attempt at execution was constitutional, and on May 9, 1947, at the age of 17, the boy was executed in the electric chair.