Why death row inmate's last words during lethal injection execution weren't 'normal'

Brian David Steckel was executed in 2005, but his death was far from normal.

Steckel was sentenced to death for raping and murdering 29-year-old Sandra Lee Long in 1994. Steckel had knocked on the woman's door and asked to use her phone. After being allowed in, he proceeded to demand sex from Long but she refused.

He went on to knock her unconscious and sexually assaulted her. Afterwards, he took Long into her room and set fire to her. She sadly died from smoke inhalation and 60 percent burns to her body.

During his trial, he requested that the jury held him 'accountable' for what he did.

"I ask you to hold me accountable for what I did," Steckel said. "I know what I did was wrong: it was selfish [and] despicable."

He went on to be given the death penalty and was put to death in November 2005. Steckel died by lethal injection, but it took minutes for the drugs to work.

When the lethal injection cocktail was created in 1977, it was said that it would take five minutes to administer and another two minutes for the inmate to pass away peacefully, said Reprieve — but this wasn't the case for Steckel.

Brian David Steckel died by lethal injection 20 years ago (Getty Stock)

Instead, it was reported to have taken the death row inmate 14 minutes to actually die. In this time frame he was still somewhat coherent and chatted with those around him.

At one point, Steckel even asked why his death was taking so long, the Maryland Daily Record reported at the time.

His final words were: "It’s time to get out of here. The journey away begins... I’m at peace."

What was unusual about it all was the fact that Steckel was able to speak. Typically, inmates are first given midazolam to sedate them, BBC News explains, before vecuronium bromide is administered to paralyze their muscles. Lastly is potassium chloride, to stop the heart.

It took several minutes for Steckel to die (Delaware Department of Corrections)

While officials said Steckel's death went as planned, others argued that he wasn't given proper anesthesia.

In 2008, attorneys representing Delaware death row inmates filed a class-action lawsuit seeking to have Delaware's use of lethal injection declared unconstitutional.

Using Steckel as an example, federal public defender Michael Wiseman said, per ABC6 Philadelphia: "Mr. Steckel was administered a paralytic drug and then an extremely painful heart-stopping drug without having received adequate anesthesia."

Delaware Department of Correction spokeswoman Beth Welch went on to deny that anything went wrong, however.

Last year, Delaware officially abolished the death penalty altogether.