Inmate who survived attempted execution dies of cancer

Doyle Lee Hamm, an Alabama inmate who survived a botched execution in 2018 after officials couldn’t find a vein to deliver him a lethal injection, has died of cancer, The Associated Press reports. 

Hamm was set to be executed on Feb. 22, 2018. He was strapped to a gurney for more than two hours as workers at the Holman Correctional Facility struggled to find a way to deliver the drugs to execute him. The staff reportedly punctured him in both legs and the groin while trying to give him the lethal injection before officials called off the execution.

The state later reached a deal with Hamm, who had been convicted in the 1987 murder of a motel clerk named Patrick Cunningham, to not go forward with the execution. He remained on death row until Sunday, when he died at the age of 64 of lymphatic cancer, according to the Montgomery Advertiser. 

“Doyle will be remembered for his generous and forgiving spirit and his ability to always stay positive even in the face of the most dire adversities. He will be missed by his friends and family,” Bernard Harcourt, who served as Hamm’s attorney, stated. 

Hamm suffered from cancer before his scheduled execution, and the cancer swelled his lymph nodes, his attorneys argued, which made it difficult to find a vein to deliver the lethal injection. Federal courts at the time dismissed arguments that the state should not as a result go through with Hamm’s execution.