The US has recorded the fewest in any pre-pandemic year since 1991, as public support for the death penalty dwindles following a series of gruesomely botched executions.
There were 18 executions in the US in 2022, and out of the 20 executions that were attempted this year, seven of them were ‘botched’ by bungling executioners, according to an annual report from the Death Penalty Information Center out Friday.
In one case, it took three hours of fumbling to set an IV line to kill Joe James Jr as executioners struggled to carry out lethal injection in Alabama, Arizona, Texas.
After trying unsuccessfully, they had to make an incision into his groin area to find one.
Robert Dunham, executive director of the the nonprofit, which takes no position on capital punishment but has criticized the way states carry out executions, said:
‘After 40 years, the states have proven themselves unable to carry out lethal injections without the risk that it will be botched.
‘The families of victims and prisoners, other execution witnesses, and corrections personnel should not be subjected to the trauma of an execution gone bad.’
In another record, public support for the death penalty matches 50-year lows at just 55%. In 2021, there were just 11 executions in the US, largely due to pandemic-related delays.
Outside of the pandemic years, the 18 executions in 2022 represented the fewest of any year since 1991.
‘All the indicators point to the continuing decline in capital punishment and the movement away from the death penalty is durable,’ said Dunham.
In the US, 37 states have abolished the death penalty or not carried out an execution in more than a decade.
On Tuesday, Oregon Governor Kate Brown commuted the sentences of all 17 of the state’s death row inmates to life in prison without parole. Oregon last executed a prisoner in 1997.
There have been no federal executions since January 2021 following a historic burst of capital punishments by the Trump administration. In July 2021, the Justice Department imposed a moratorium on federal executions.
The report called 2022 the ‘Year of the Botched Execution’: Seven of the 20 execution attempts in the U.S. were visibly problematic or took an inordinate amount of time, subjecting prisoners to agony.
This prompted some states to put them on hold so processes and protocols could be reviewed.
In Alabama, Governor Kay Ivey put executions on hold and ordered a ‘top-to-bottom’ review of the state’s capital punishment system last month after three failed lethal injections.
The most shocking case was that of Joe Nathan James Jr, who was executed on July 28 in a procedure that took over three hours.
The execution scheduled to take place at 6pm did not open to media observers until 9pm, where they witnessed James unresponsive on the gurney.
He was declared dead at 9.27pm.During the lengthy delay, corrections officials subjected two female reporters, who had witnessed multiple prior executions, to ‘dress code inspections,’ forcing one to change out of a skirt.
Yvette Craig, James’ younger sister, called her brother’s execution a ‘murder’ that took place against the wishes of the victim’s family.
