The US state of Alabama has put a hold on all lethal injections in the wake of a disastrous attempted execution of inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith earlier this month.
Smith suffered through 'several attempts at accessing veins in several locations' for more than an hour as corrections officials tried to carry out his punishment for the 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of a preacher's wife.
The prisoner's lawyers claim the convicted killer suffered several injuries at the hands of Alabama Department of Corrections officials as they repeatedly tried to 'gain the necessary venous access for the execution'.
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The failed execution is the state's second bungled capital punishment attempt in only two months and the third since 2018.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has now ordered a pause in executions and has requested a review of the state's capital punishment system in a 'top-to-bottom' review.
She has also requested Attorney General Steve Marshall to place a stay on two pending requests for lethal injection for other prisoners on death row.
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Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Hamm has since said his department is fully committed to a thorough review of their current system to ensure 'that we can get this done right'.
"Everything is on the table — from our legal strategy in dealing with last minute appeals, to how we train and prepare, to the order and timing of events on execution day, to the personnel and equipment involved," Hamm said, as per AP.
Nonprofit organisation Alabama Arise, a group that advocates for the marginalised and poor in the US state, have released a statement in the wake of the botched execution.
The group urged the state Attorney General to agree to the halt in capital punishment and called on legislators to 'do their part to reduce the unfairness of Alabama’s death penalty system'.
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According to the Death Penalty Information Center, no state other than Alabama has needed to to halt an execution in progress since 2017.
The last time it happened elsewhere was in Ohio, when officials halted a lethal injection for inmate Alva Campbell because workers couldn’t find a vein.
Death Penalty Information Center executive director Robert Dunham told AP that the Governor has made the right call to seek an investigation, however it needs to be carried out by an external third party.
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He went on to accuse the Governor of 'wilful blindness' to the current state of Alabama's prison system.
"The Alabama Department of Corrections has a history of denying and bending the truth about its execution failures, and it cannot be trusted to meaningfully investigate its own incompetence and wrongdoing," he said.
Rachel Lang