BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) 鈥� Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey sought a pause in executions and ordered a 鈥渢op-to-bottom鈥� review of the state鈥檚 capital punishment system Monday after an unprecedented third failed lethal injection.
Ivey鈥檚 office issued a statement saying she had both asked Attorney General Steve Marshall to withdraw motions seeking execution dates for two inmates and requested that the Department of Corrections undertake a full review of the state鈥檚 execution process.
Ivey also requested that Marshall not seek additional execution dates for any other death row inmates until the review is complete.
The move followed the uncompleted execution Thursday of Kenneth Eugene Smith, which was the state鈥檚 second such instance of being unable to put an inmate to death in the past two months and its third since 2018. The state completed an execution in July, but only after a three-hour delay caused at least partly by the same problem with starting an IV line.
Denying that prison officials or law enforcement are to blame for the problems, Ivey said 鈥渓egal tactics and criminals hijacking the system are at play here.鈥�
鈥淔or the sake of the victims and their families, we鈥檝e got to get this right,鈥� she said.
Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said the department is fully committed to the review and is 鈥渃onfident that we can get this done right.鈥�
鈥淓verything is on the table 鈥� from our legal strategy in dealing with last minute appeals, to how we train and prepare, to the order and timing of events on execution day, to the personnel and equipment involved,鈥� Hamm said in a statement issued through the governor鈥檚 office.
Marshall, the state鈥檚 top prosecutor, didn鈥檛 immediately say whether he would agree to Ivey鈥檚 request. The attorney general 鈥渞ead the governor鈥檚 and commissioner鈥檚 comments with interest鈥� and 鈥渨ill have more to say on this at a later date,鈥� said spokesman Mike Lewis.
Alabama Arise, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of the poor, said Marshall should agree to a moratorium and urged legislators to 鈥渄o their part to reduce the unfairness of Alabama鈥檚 death penalty system.鈥�
The Death Penalty Information Center, an anti-death-penalty group with a large database on executions, said no state other than Alabama has had to halt an execution in progress since 2017, when Ohio halted Alva Campbell鈥檚 lethal injection because workers couldn鈥檛 find a vein.
The executive director of the organization, Robert Dunham, said Ivey was right to seek an investigation and a pause, but any review of the system needs to be done by someone other than the state鈥檚 prison system. While Ivey blamed defense efforts for execution failures, Dunham said her 鈥渨illful blindness鈥� to the prison system鈥檚 woes were part of the problem.
鈥淭he Alabama Department of Corrections has a history of denying and bending the truth about its execution failures, and it cannot be trusted to meaningfully investigate its own incompetence and wrongdoing,鈥� he said.
Earlier this year, after Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee halted a lethal injection in April because he learned the drugs hadn鈥檛 been tested as required, he ordered an independent investigation and paused all executions through the end of the year.
Alabama鈥檚 execution of Joe Nathan James Jr. took several hours to get underway in July because of problems establishing an IV line, leading anti-death-penalty group Reprieve US Forensic Justice Initiative to claim the execution was botched.
In September, the state called off the scheduled execution of Alan Eugene Miller because of difficulty accessing his veins. Miller said in a court filing that prison staff poked him with needles for more than an hour, and at one point left him hanging vertically on a gurney before announcing they were stopping. Prison officials have maintained the delays were the result of the state carefully following procedures.
Ivey asked the state to withdraw motions seeking execution dates for Miller and James Edward Barber, the only two death row inmates with such requests before the Alabama Supreme Court.
Alabama in 2018 called off the execution of Doyle Hamm because of problems getting the intravenous line connected. Hamm had damaged veins because of lymphoma, hepatitis and past drug use, his lawyer said. Hamm later died in prison of natural causes.
Alabama should have imposed an execution moratorium after Hamm鈥檚 failed execution for the benefit of everyone, said Bernard Harcourt, an attorney who represented Hamm for years.
鈥淎s a political matter, Gov. Ivey mentions only the victims, but these botched executions have been ordeals for the men on the gurney, their families, friends, ministers, and attorneys, and all the men and women working at the prison and involved in these botched attempts. The trauma of these executions extend widely to everyone that they touch,鈥� Harcourt said.
鈥斺赌斺赌�
More of AP鈥檚 coverage of executions can be found at https://apnews.com/hub/executions.
By Jay Reeves
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
