ALABAMA (USA): EXECUTION STAY FOR CANCER-HIT INMATE WITH DAMAGED VEINS

The state halted Doyle Lee Hamm’s execution because medical staff were having difficulty connecting an intravenous line.
Hamm was scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Thursday, but the U.S. Supreme Court delayed the execution while it considered Hamm’s request to block it. The court ruled about 9 p.m. that officials could proceed with the execution. Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn said Friday morning that staff did not think they could get the line connected before the death warrant expired at midnight Thursday. Dunn said it was a “time issue.” Officials first announced at 11:35 p.m. Thursday that the execution had been halted. Hamm’s attorney, Bernard Harcourt, said he had been arguing since July that Hamm’s veins were too compromised by illness for lethal injection. Harcourt had argued that lymphoma, drug use and hepatitis C had compromised Hamm’s veins to the point that lethal injection would be both difficult and unconstitutionally cruel. Alabama prison officials had told the courts that they planned to connect the intravenous line to usable veins below the knee.
Hamm, 61, White, was sentenced to death for the 1987 murder of motel clerk Patrick Cunningham during a robbery.