When we talk about the death penalty, the conversation usually sticks to morality or law. We argue about whether the state should have the power to kill. We debate the cost of life without parole versus the price of a needle. But there’s a gritty, uncomfortable reality that often gets buried in legal briefs: sometimes, the machinery of death just breaks. Botched executions and the death penalty are inextricably linked, and honestly, it happens way more often than most people realize.
Since 1890, thousands of people have been executed in the United States. According to research by Austin Sarat, a professor at Amherst College, roughly 3% of those didn't go as planned.
That sounds like a small number until you’re the one in the room.
It’s messy. It’s loud. It’s frequently traumatic for everyone involved—the witnesses, the medical staff, and obviously, the person on the gurney. When a procedure that is supposed to be "humane" turns into a two-hour struggle to find a vein, the legal and ethical questions shift from "should we do this" to "can we actually do this safely?"
The Lethal Injection Illusion
For decades, lethal injection was sold as the silver bullet. It was supposed to be medical. Clean. A quiet drift into sleep. But the reality has been anything but clinical.
Take the case of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma back in 2014. This is probably one of the most cited examples of how bad things can get. The executioners spent nearly an hour trying to find a vein. They finally went for his groin. When the drugs started flowing, the vein exploded—basically, the chemicals went into his tissue instead of his bloodstream. Lockett didn't just drift off. He writhed. He tried to speak. He didn't die for 43 minutes, and even then, it was from a heart attack, not the actual drugs.
It’s a weird paradox. We want the death penalty to be a punishment, but we have a constitutional ban on "cruel and unusual" treatment. Lethal injection was the compromise, but it relies on medical precision that the state often can't provide. Doctors and nurses are bound by the Hippocratic Oath—"do no harm"—so they usually refuse to participate. This leaves the task to prison guards or paramedics with limited training.
You’ve got people who aren't experts trying to perform a complex medical procedure under high stress. Mistakes aren't just possible; they’re basically guaranteed.
Why the Drugs are Failing
Everything changed around 2010. That's when European pharmaceutical companies, where the death penalty is widely hated, started refusing to sell their drugs to U.S. prisons. This created a massive supply chain crisis for execution chambers.
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States started scrambling.
They turned to "compounding pharmacies"—basically small-scale labs that don't have the same federal oversight as big manufacturers. They also started experimenting with new drug cocktails. Instead of the tried-and-true three-drug protocol, some states switched to massive doses of Midazolam.
Midazolam is a sedative, not an anesthetic.
Critics, including Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, have argued that using it is like being burned alive from the inside while being unable to scream because you're paralyzed. In the 2015 case Glossip v. Gross, the Court narrowly upheld its use, but the dissent was scathing. The legal fight over these chemicals is basically a game of cat and mouse between state governments and defense attorneys.
The Horror of the "Dig Cut"
When a vein can't be found, things get medieval. It’s called a "cut-down" procedure.
In some cases, like that of Alva Campbell in Ohio, the execution was called off only after the team poked him for 80 minutes and couldn't find a single usable vein. He was 69 and had terminal cancer. They eventually gave up. He died of natural causes in his cell months later.
But sometimes they don't give up. There are accounts of executioners literally cutting into a prisoner’s arm or leg to find a deep vein. It’s a surgical procedure performed in a non-sterile environment by people who aren't surgeons. If you're looking for why botched executions and the death penalty stay in the headlines, this is it. It's the visceral, physical failure of the state to carry out its own laws.
The Return of Older Methods
Because lethal injection has become such a logistical nightmare, some states are looking backward.
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- Nitrogen Hypoxia: Alabama recently used this on Kenneth Smith in early 2024. They put a mask on him and replaced his oxygen with nitrogen. Proponents said it would be "painless." Eyewitnesses said he shook and convulsed for minutes.
- The Firing Squad: It’s actually making a comeback in places like Idaho and South Carolina. Some argue it’s actually more "humane" because it's fast and doesn't rely on shaky medical science. It's brutal, sure, but it's efficient.
- The Electric Chair: Still on the books in several states. It’s notoriously prone to "botching," with reports of smoke, flames, and multiple "shocks" needed to finish the job.
It feels like we're regressing. We tried to make killing "nice," and when that failed, we went back to the methods that were supposed to be obsolete.
The Psychological Toll on Staff
We don't talk enough about the people who have to pull the trigger or push the plunger.
Ron McAndrew, a former warden at Florida State Prison, has spoken extensively about the trauma of a botched execution. He watched a man's head catch fire in the electric chair. He’s said it haunts him every day. When an execution goes wrong, it’s not just the prisoner who suffers; the correctional officers, the wardens, and the witnesses carry that weight.
There’s a specific kind of PTSD associated with being part of a failed state killing. It’s a heavy burden for a civil servant to carry, especially when the failure is due to a lack of proper equipment or training.
What Most People Get Wrong
A lot of folks think a "botched" execution means the person survived. That's rarely the case.
Usually, it just means the process was agonizingly long or deviated from the standard protocol. It means the "cruel and unusual" line was crossed. There’s a common misconception that if an execution fails, the person goes free. That’s a myth. They just take you back to your cell, treat your wounds, and the state starts the legal process to try again.
Imagine the psychological state of a person who has already "died" once on the gurney and is told they have to do it again in six months. That was the reality for Doyle Hamm in Alabama. After a botched attempt to find a vein that left him with over a dozen puncture wounds, the state eventually settled and agreed not to try again.
Legal Fallout and the Future
Every time a botch happens, a flurry of lawsuits follows. This is why the death penalty is so expensive. It’s not the cost of the drugs; it’s the decades of litigation.
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Defense lawyers use these failures as evidence that the entire system is broken. They argue that if the state can’t guarantee a quick, painless death, then the death penalty itself is unconstitutional. On the flip side, proponents of the death penalty argue that these are just "technical difficulties" and that the focus should remain on the crimes committed by the inmates.
But public opinion is shifting. Even some conservatives are starting to question the death penalty, not necessarily out of mercy, but because of government incompetence. If the government can't even run a DMV efficiently, why do we trust them with a high-stakes medical procedure?
Actionable Steps for Staying Informed
If you're following the debate around capital punishment and the technical failures of the system, here is how to track the most reliable data:
1. Monitor the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC):
They maintain the most comprehensive database of every execution in the U.S., including detailed reports on "incidents" or botches. They categorize them by method and state.
2. Follow State Legislation on "Secrecy Laws":
Many states are passing laws to hide where they get their execution drugs. Understanding these laws is key to knowing why certain drugs are failing—if we don't know who made the drug, we don't know its quality.
3. Look at the Medical Ethics Debate:
Follow the American Medical Association (AMA) guidelines. Their stance on physician participation in executions is a major reason why lethal injections are handled by non-professionals.
4. Check Judicial Rulings on the Eighth Amendment:
The "Cruel and Unusual Punishment" clause is the heart of every death penalty case. Stay updated on how the Supreme Court interprets "pain"—is it the presence of pain that matters, or the intent of the state to cause it?
The reality of botched executions and the death penalty is that as long as humans are involved, there will be errors. But in this context, an error isn't a typo; it's a prolonged, public agony that challenges the very foundation of our legal system. It’s a topic that demands we look past the politics and see the raw, often gruesome, mechanical reality of the law.