2022 ‘year of botched executions’ in US

WASHINGTON: One-third of the executions by lethal injection in the United States this year were “botched,” a capital punishment watchdog group said on Friday.

The Death Penalty Information Centre (DPIC) said 18 executions were carried out in the country in 2022, the fewest in a non-pandemic year since 1991. “2022 could be called ´the year of the botched execution´ because of the high number of states with failed or bungled executions,” the nonprofit DPIC said in its annual report.

“Seven of the 20 execution attempts were visibly problematic -- an astonishing 35 percent -- as a result of executioner incompetence, failures to follow protocols, or defects in the protocols themselves,” it said. In Alabama, for example, it took three hours to set an IV line for the July 28, 2022 execution by lethal injection of convicted murderer Joe James Jr., the DPIC said.

Two other execution attempts in Alabama were halted because of problems setting IV lines and the governor ordered a moratorium on executions while a review of procedures is carried out. The DPIC said 37 of the 50 US states have abolished the death penalty or not carried out an execution in more than a decade.