List of botched executions

A botched execution is defined by political science professor Austin Sarat as:

Botched executions occur when there is a breakdown in, or departure from, the 'protocol' for a particular method of execution. The protocol can be established by the norms, expectations, and advertised virtues of each method or by the government's officially adopted execution guidelines. Botched executions are 'those involving unanticipated problems or delays that caused, at least arguably, unnecessary agony for the prisoner or that reflect gross incompetence of the executioner.' Examples of such problems include, among other things, inmates catching fire while being electrocuted, being strangled during hangings (instead of having their necks broken), and being administered the wrong dosages of specific drugs for lethal injections.

List

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Before 1900

• Thomas Cromwell (1540) – Beheading by axe. Edward Hall wrote that "So patiently suffered the stroke of the axe, by a ragged and Boocherly miser, which very ungoodly perfourmed the office."
• Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (1541) – Beheading by axe. An inexperienced executioner reportedly hacked at her a total of 11 times before finally decapitating her. Some sources claim that Margaret refused to lay her head on the block, declaiming, "So should traitors do, and I am none"; according to the account, she turned her head "every which way", reportedly instructing the executioner that, if he wanted her head, he should take it as he could, although this may be apocryphal.
• Mary, Queen of Scots (1587) – Beheading by axe. The execution took three blows.
• Anne Greene (1650) – Hanging (attempted). She was found alive, in her coffin, a day after her hanging, having a faint pulse and weak breathing. Set free after failed execution.
• William Russell, Lord Russell (1683) – Beheading by axe. The executioner, Jack Ketch, later wrote a letter of apology for conducting the execution poorly due to being distracted.
• James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth (1685) – Beheading by axe. Jack Ketch took between five and eight strokes to behead him.
• John Smith (1705) – Hanging (attempted). He survived after hanging for 25 minutes. Set free after failed execution.
• William Duell (1740) – Hanging (attempted). Survived the execution after being left hanging by the neck for around 20 minutes. Sentence commuted to transportation.
• Arthur Elphinstone, 6th Lord Balmerino (1746) – Beheading by axe. It is said that it took three blows to behead him.
• Robert-François Damiens (1757) – Dismemberment by horses. Limbs could not be torn off and had to be cut.
• Joseph Samuel (1805) – Hanging (attempted). Survived three attempts to hang him. Sentence commuted to life imprisonment.
• Charles Getter (1833) – Hanging (attempted). Survived the first attempt to hang him. Died in a second hanging a short time later.
• Jacob Charmel (1845) – Firing squad. Charmell survived the first volley from the six-person squad, and during a second volley, one of the officers' rifles misfired. After a physician confirmed that Charmel was still alive, the officer whose gun had misfired was ordered to fire a final shot from close range. Charmel was the last person to be executed by firing squad in the Netherlands.
• John McCaffary (1851) – Hanging. The hanging was initially unsuccessful and he strangled for approximately 20 minutes.
• John Tapner (1854) – Hanging. The rope did not break his neck, and he died from strangulation after hanging for 12 minutes.
• Pieter Jan Geurts (1858) - Hanging. Witnesses reported Geurts struggling for several minutes after falling through the trapdoor.
• James Stephens (1860) – Hanging by upright jerker. He contorted and gurgled before asphyxiating to death.
• Paula Angel (1861) - Hanging. No gallows were available, so she was instead tied to a cottonwood tree and placed on a wagon attached to a team of horses. Antonio Abad Herrera, the county sheriff and executioner, didn't want to tie her arms, so when the wagon began moving she was able to grab hold of the noose. Herrera attempted to pull her downward, but the crowd prevented him from doing so and cut her free. There was potential for a riot, as some in the crowd believed that she was entitled to be released, but order was maintained and the second attempt was successful.
• Henry Manns (1863) – Hanging. The rope slipped from his neck and caught around the front of his face, causing a prolonged and agonising execution.
• Henry Wirz (1865) – Hanging. The standard drop used failed to break his neck and he died slowly due to strangulation.
• Thomas Scott (1870) – Firing squad. The first salvo did not kill him, after he was shot once in the upper chest and once in the shoulder. He then got shot in the back of his head, but the bullet came out through the left side of the jaw. He was then put in a coffin, where he finally died.
• Mary Ann Cotton (1873) – Hanging. The rope was rigged too short to break her neck and she instead died slowly from strangulation.
• Wallace Wilkerson (1879) – Firing squad. Died from bleeding 15 minutes after shots were fired but missed his heart.
• John "Babbacombe" Lee (1885) – Hanging (attempted). Survived three attempts after the trapdoor of the gallows failed to open; sentence subsequently commuted to life imprisonment.
• Robert Goodale (1885) – Hanging. The rope was too long and over-measured, causing him to be decapitated.
• Moses Shrimpton (1885) – Hanging. His neck muscles were weak and he was decapitated.
• Roxana Druse (1887) – Hanging. The last woman hanged in the state of New York, and the first woman hanged in 40 years in Central New York. Her botched execution did not kill her instantly, further motivating New York officials to replace the gallows with the electric chair in New York.
• William Kemmler (1890) – Electric chair. The first man to be electrocuted using the electric chair, the execution took eight minutes as blood vessels under the skin ruptured and bled out.

20th century

• Martin Stickles (1901) – Hanging. The drop was miscalculated, causing his neck to be severely lacerated.
• Tom "Black Jack" Ketchum (1901) – Hanging. The rope used was too long and he was decapitated. This was exacerbated by the fact that he had gained a considerable amount of weight while in custody prior to his execution.
• William Williams (1906) – Hanging. He hit the floor after dropping through the trap door of the gallows. Three men had to hold his body up by the rope for over 14 minutes until Williams finally died of strangulation.
• Wenceslao Moguel (1915) – Firing squad (attempted). He was shot nine times before a coup de grâce was performed. He survived, although he was disfigured; he died in 1976.
• Hamilton (1921) – Hanging. The drop was too long and he was decapitated by the rope.
• Constantine Beaver (1929) – Hanging. The drop could not break his neck and he died of strangulation.
• Eva Dugan (1930) – Hanging. She was decapitated by the rope.
• Gordon Northcott (1930) – Hanging. The rope was too slack to break his neck. It took 13 minutes for him to die from strangulation.
• Thomasina Sarao (1935) – Hanging. Her weight was miscalculated and she was decapitated.
• Earl Gardner (1936) – Hanging. While falling from the trapdoor, his shoulder struck the side of the trapdoor, causing him to break his fall and strangle for over half an hour.
• Allen Foster (1936) – Gas chamber. Foster was the first person to be executed inside of North Carolina's gas chamber. It took him 10 minutes to lose consciousness. As he was being gassed, he cried out "Save me, Joe Louis! Save me, Joe Louis!" His eyes visibly showed signs of suffering and his head rolled back while he was asphyxiating in the hydrocyanic gas. Before losing consciousness, he started violently convulsing for the period of 10 minutes that he was conscious, he jerked his head forward onto his chest and his eyes were bulging. It took over 12 minutes for Foster to die.
• Some of the Nuremberg executions (1946) – Hanging. It is likely that miscalculations may have led to the executioner using ropes that were too short for some executions, resulting in a failure to break the victim's neck and therefore a slower death from strangulation, although the United States Army denied this. Furthermore, the trapdoor of the gallows had been constructed so small that some condemned struck the sides of the trapdoor during the drop.
• Willie Francis (1946) – Electric chair (attempted). "Gruesome Gertie", Louisiana's portable electric chair, was improperly set up before the execution by an intoxicated guard and inmate, resulting in the current not being strong enough to kill Francis or knock him unconscious. The execution failed as a result and Francis could be heard shouting "Take it off! Take it off! Let me breathe!" by witnesses. He was successfully executed a year later.
• Ethel Rosenberg (1953) – Electric chair. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were a married couple in New York, convicted of spying for the Soviet Union. Julius's execution went smoothly. Ethel was electrocuted three times and after her restraints were removed, doctors determined that she was still alive. She was electrocuted twice more, with smoke rising from the head electrode, before she was pronounced dead.
• James Larry Upton (1956) – Electric chair. Upton was the last person to be executed in New Mexico's electric chair, before they switched over to a gas chamber. The cap for the head electrode wouldn't fit Upton, so an improvised cap was made from a parka to be used for the execution. During his execution, the fur on the parka started billowing smoke and later ignited into flames from the ensuing high voltage of electricity.
• Arthur Lucas (1962) – Hanging. Lucas was one of the last two men to be executed in Canada. He was almost completely decapitated due to the executioner miscalculating his weight.
• Julián Grimau (1963) – Firing squad. The soldiers conducting the firing squad were nervous and botched the execution.
• Maru Sira (1975) – Hanging. He was unconscious during his execution because he was sedated prior with Largactil, an antipsychotic drug, to prevent an escape attempt. During Sira's execution, he was laid down on the trapdoor, causing the rope to not be able to fracture his neck, leading him to strangle to death.
• Ginggaew Lorsoungnern (1979) – Shooting by machine gun (attempted). She survived an initial round of ten shots. Because of Ginggaew's situs inversus, none of the bullets had struck her right-sided heart. After being brought to the morgue, it was discovered that she was still alive. She died after a second round of gunfire.
• Frank J. Coppola (1982) – Electric chair. Coppola's execution was the first in Virginia and the first botched execution after 1976. It took two 55-second jolts of electricity to kill him. Witnesses also reported seeing fire emitting from the electrode attached to Coppola's leg.
• Jimmy Lee Gray (1983) – Gas chamber. Gray's execution was the first in Mississippi after 1976. He repeatedly banged his head into an iron bar while being gassed. After Gray's execution, head restraints were added onto the iron bar inside of the gas chamber.
• John Louis Evans (1983) – Electric chair. Evans's execution was the first in Alabama after 1976. In Alabama's electric chair named "Yellow Mama", it took three charges and lasted 24 minutes for him to die. It left his body charred and smoldering.
• Al-Sadek Hamed Al-Shuwehdy (1984) – Hanging. The drop was too short, causing him to strangle. He died after his legs were pulled by Huda Ben Amer.
• Alpha Otis Stephens (1984) – Electric chair. The first charge of two-minute, 2,080-volt electricity administered failed to kill him, and he struggled to breathe for eight minutes before a second charge carried out his death sentence.
• Stephen Peter Morin (1985) – Lethal injection. He had to be probed with needles in his arms and legs for 45 minutes, before a suitable vein could be found.
• William Earl Vandiver (1985) – Electric chair. He was still breathing after the first jolt of 2,300 volts. It took a total of five jolts and 17 minutes to kill Vandiver. Vandiver's attorney, who had witnessed the execution described smoke and a burning smell.
• Randy Lynn Woolls (1986) – Lethal injection. He had to help the execution technicians find a useable vein.
• Elliot Rod Johnson (1987) – Lethal injection. His veins collapsed, making the execution take almost an hour.
• Raymond Landry Sr. (1988) – Lethal injection. The execution took 40 minutes and 24 minutes for Landry to die. Two minutes into his execution, the syringe came undone from his vein, spraying chemicals across the room, towards the witnesses. It then took 14 minutes for the executioners to reinsert the catheter into his vein. Landry groaned at least once during his execution.
• Stephen Albert McCoy (1989) – Lethal injection. Had a violent reaction to the drugs which caused his chest to heave. In addition, he gasped, choked, and arched his back off the gurney. A witness fainted during the execution.
• Horace Franklin Dunkins Jr. (1989) – Electric chair. The cables of the electrodes were improperly connected and he survived the first jolt of electricity. After the cables were properly reconnected, he was killed in another jolt. The whole execution took 19 minutes for him to die.
• Jesse Joseph Tafero (1990) – Electric chair. Florida's electric chair malfunctioned, causing six-inch flames to shoot out of Tafero's head. Three jolts of electricity were required to execute Tafero, in a process that took seven minutes.
• Charles Thomas Walker (1990) – Lethal injection. Walker's execution was the first in Illinois after 1976. During his execution, there was a kink in the IV tubing and the needle was pointed towards his fingers instead of his heart, prolonging his execution.
• Wilbert Lee Evans (1990) – Electric chair. Witnesses observed blood flowing from Evans's eyes, nose, and mouth when the electricity was administered. It took two shocks to kill him.
• Derick Lynn Peterson (1991) – Electric chair. After a cycle of 1,725 volts for 10 seconds, followed by 240 volts for 90 seconds, the prison physician determined that he was still alive. The cycle then had to be repeated a second time for Peterson to die.
• Ricky Ray Rector (1992) – Lethal injection. It took the execution staff over 50 minutes to find a suitable vein in Rector's arm. Witnesses heard Rector loudly moan eight times throughout his execution. During the ordeal, Rector helped the execution staff find a vein.
• Donald Eugene Harding (1992) – Gas chamber. Harding's execution was the first in Arizona after 1976. His asphyxiation took 11 minutes before death was finally confirmed. Throughout his execution, he had multiple violent convulsions and spasms.
• David Scarborough Lawson (1994) – Gas chamber. Lawson's execution was the first gas chamber execution in North Carolina after 1976. After cyanide pellets were dropped into a bowl of sulfuric acid beneath the restraining chair, the acid splashed onto his right leg, causing him to strain so hard that the strap securing his right leg broke. During his execution, he screamed "I am human" multiple times with mucus pouring out of his nose, onto his leather blindfold, while he was groaning at the same time. His screams slowly muffled after each minute. Lawson's execution took about 10 minutes until his death and his body still quivered afterwards. After Lawson's execution, "splash-guards" were then added onto the restraining chair inside of the gas chamber to prevent further strap breakage. North Carolina's gas chamber was only used once more, before being retired.
• Jerry White (1995) – Electric chair. Witnesses reported that when the electricity was first administered, White let out a scream that faded in intensity as the execution continued. In 1999, during hearings for Florida to determine if the electric chair was a constitutional method of execution, a witness said he heard White breathing as the electricity flowed through his body, although he could not tell if White was inhaling or exhaling.
• Pedro Luis Medina (1997) – Electric chair. During his execution in Florida's electric chair, Medina's head burst into twelve-inch crown shaped flames and filled the chamber with smoke.
• Zoleykhah Kadkhoda (1997) – Stoning (attempted). She was found alive at a morgue after her public stoning.
• Allen Lee Davis (1999) – Electric chair. Davis was the last person to be executed by electric chair in Florida. He bled profusely from the nose while being electrocuted, and he suffered burns to his head, leg, and groin area. His execution caused uproar and made Florida switch to lethal injection as their primary execution method. The electric chair is now only a secondary method of execution in Florida and the rest of the states in America that allow it.

21st century

• Joseph Lewis Clark (2006) – Lethal injection. The execution took nearly 90 minutes.
• Ángel Nieves Díaz (2006) – Lethal injection. He needed an additional dose of drugs to be executed. The full process took approximately 34 minutes as opposed to the usual 7.5 minutes. A post-mortem examination revealed that Díaz's IVs were improperly inserted past his veins to his subcutaneous soft tissue.
• Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti (2007) – Hanging. He was decapitated as a result of an error in the calculations resulting in him being dropped too far.
• Romell Broom (2009) – Lethal injection (attempted). Cried in pain after being stabbed by needles 18 times. The execution was called off after two hours. A second execution was later scheduled for 2022, but he died in prison in 2020 before it could be carried out.
• Alireza M. (2013) – Hanging (attempted). He was found alive at a morgue after hanging for 12 minutes.
• Dennis McGuire (2014) – Lethal injection. Executed using a new, untried and untested lethal drug combination and took over 25 minutes to die.
• Clayton Lockett (2014) – Lethal injection. Was observed convulsing and attempting to speak for 43 minutes after the drugs were administered. Ultimately died of a heart attack.
• Joseph Wood (2014) – Lethal injection. Instead of the usual ten minutes with one dose being sufficient to kill him, he underwent a two-hour injection procedure in which he was injected with the drug cocktail 15 times.
• Alva Campbell (2017) – Lethal injection (attempted). Executioners were unable to find a suitable vein. A second attempt was scheduled for 2019, but he died in prison from natural causes in 2018.
• Doyle Lee Hamm (2018) – Lethal injection (attempted). Was stabbed with needles for more than two and a half hours as the execution team tried to locate a suitable vein. The execution failed. The State of Alabama later agreed not to attempt to execute him again as part of a confidential settlement, thus de facto reducing his sentence to life imprisonment without parole. He died of cancer (which had contributed to the botched execution) in prison in 2021.
• Wesley Ira Purkey (2020) – Lethal injection. His autopsy results show that he suffered from a flash pulmonary edema, which feels like drowning and can only be experienced while alive.
• John Marion Grant (2021) – Lethal injection. Most witnesses observed Grant convulsing, straining against his restraints, struggling to breathe, and vomiting. He took 21 minutes to die. His autopsy showed that the execution drugs caused him to suffer a flash pulmonary edema.
• Joe Nathan James Jr. (2022) – Lethal injection. His execution took three hours to complete. An autopsy showed that prison officials had difficulty inserting IVs into James's body, resorting to attempting to establish IV lines in his knuckles and inadvertently puncturing his muscles. James's execution was the longest known completed botched execution in American history.
• Alan Eugene Miller (2022) – Lethal injection (attempted). Miller claimed that he filed paperwork requesting Alabama's new and unused execution method of nitrogen hypoxia, but officials were not ready to carry out an execution by hypoxia and claimed that they did not have his paperwork, so he was subjected to lethal injection. For over two hours, prison officials attempted to establish an IV line 18 times before calling off the execution due to the midnight deadline for Miller's execution warrant approaching. Afterwards, Alabama officials agreed to never again subject Miller to lethal injection and that he could only be put to death by nitrogen hypoxia. He was executed on September 26, 2024, via nitrogen hypoxia.
• Kenneth Eugene Smith (2022) – Lethal injection (attempted). Smith was strapped to the execution gurney and multiple attempts were made to put an IV into his arms, and he was repeatedly stabbed with the needle in his collarbone. Prison officials called off the execution; Smith remained strapped to the gurney and was not immediately alerted to the fact that he was not to be executed that night. Smith's attempted execution prompted Alabama Governor Kay Ivey to temporarily suspend the death penalty in Alabama to allow for an investigation into the state's botched lethal injections. On January 25, 2024, Smith was executed by nitrogen hypoxia.
• Thomas Eugene Creech (2024) – Lethal injection (attempted). The execution was called off after the medical team failed to establish an IV line for the lethal injection drugs.

External links

• America's Long and Gruesome History of Botched Executions, 5 December 2014, Wired.com