executioners

In at least one case, executioners were finally able to access a prisoner’s vein and complete the execution only by cutting into his arm.

“People with a special, so to speak, psyche were appointed executioners.”

The failure was the latest in a series of botched executions around the country, often stemming from executioners having trouble finding veins.

Mr. Smith had already survived one failed execution, in November 2022, when executioners spent hours trying to access a vein to inject him with lethal drugs.

Alabama’s first attempt at the method comes after several botched or difficult executions in which executioners struggled to find veins on the men they were trying to put to death.