Death Row psychologist's account of two-hour botched lethal injection shows true reality of executions

Death row expert and psychologist Bill Kimberlin only planned to visit death row in Ohio a 'few times' to see what it was like. However, on his third visit, an inmate asked him to attend his execution, which was happening in a month's time.

Kimberlin accepted the offer, and ever since then a number of other inmates have reached out requesting the same thing.

During his visits to death row, Kimberlin spends time with, speaks to, and even sits down to eat meals with the inmates. He says he's gained 'trust' from the prisoners while studying their criminal minds.

"It's a unique relationship, especially when they go so far as to ask me to witness their execution," he tells UNILAD.

All the executions Kimberlin has attended are through the lethal injection, which is the most common execution method used for inmates on death row in the United States. The method has accounted for the majority of executions since 1976, when the death penalty was reinstated in the country.

Kimberlin has spoken to hundreds of death row inmates (Bill Kimberlin)

"The executions are horrible, there's just no way around it," Kimberlin reveals.

"Most people think it's like putting an animal down, but my very first execution, because I've seen a number of them, my first one lasted over two hours," he says.

He then went on to reveal that the EMTs 'are not always successful' in finding the veins of the inmates straight away - which prolongs the time it takes.

"The first one, the guy had to get off of the table to go to the restroom and then come back and hop back on because it was taking so long," he adds.

As per the Death Penalty Information Centre, during the injection 'jurisdictions use a vari­ety of exe­cu­tion pro­to­cols using one or more drugs.'

"Most three-drug pro­to­cols use an anes­thet­ic or seda­tive, fol­lowed by a drug to par­a­lyze the pris­on­er, and final­ly a drug to stop the heart," the site states. Those that only use one or two drugs consist of 'an over­dose of an anes­thet­ic or seda­tive' which can include pen­to­bar­bi­tal, which leads to the inmate's death. Of course Kimberlin was privvy to all of this information, but he still didn't expect it to take so long.

The lethal injection is the most popular execution method in the United States (Getty Stock)

Describing what happens in more detail, Kimberlin explains that in the state of Ohio, in which he has attended the most executions, 'they require two ports of entry,' which typically includes one in each arm.

However, during the first execution Kimberlin witnessed, it took 'so long' to find the first port of entry that they had to 'keep a bag of saline solution running through to keep that line open while they worked on the other one'.

The bag then drained out 'completely,' with the inmate in question even having to get up to use the restroom in the middle of it.

"They let him get up off the table and go to the bathroom. He then came back, hopped back up on the table [and they] commenced to working on the other arm until they finally located one," Kimberlin recalls.

Despite having witnessed many inmates' last moments on Earth, Kimberlin revealed that most of them don't express remorse for their heinous crimes.

"I think I can name two inmates out of the countless ones that I've dealt with over the years that have shown remorse," he says.

"And of the two maybe one is really authentic and genuine about it."