The failed execution is just the latest in a series of high-profile botched executions in Alabama. In August, the longest execution in recorded American history took place when Alabama officials, trying to find an IV line, failed to kill Joe Nathan James Jr for three and a half hours. Maya Foa, the director of Reprieve U.S. which reviewed the execution, called the killing the “the definition of cruel and unusual punishment.”
In 2018, Alabama’s attempt to kill Doyle Hamm, 61, had to be called off in a similar fashion to Miller’s after they took two and a half hours to find a vein. The execution was described as “gory” as the executioners caused Hamm to bleed so much that it leaked through his clothes and the pad he was sitting on. When it was finally called off Hamm collapsed and afterward, some described the execution attempt as “torture.” Hamm died in 2021 of lymphatic cancer.
“Officials knew it was likely they would subject Alan Miller to the very same long and agonizing procedure as Joe Nathan James and Doyle Lee Hamm and yet they ploughed ahead anyway—adding to the state’s horrific history of botched executions,” Reprieve US said in a statement.
Read the full story at Vice News.