In this room, Joe Nathan James suffered for three hours: the execution of the convicted murderer was reportedly the longest execution in US history

JTFMax:

His agony lasted more than three hours: Joe Nathan James (50) was executed by lethal injection on July 28 in Atmore, Alabama. The convicted murderer was scheduled to be killed at 6 p.m. – but James was not pronounced dead until 9:27 p.m.

According to a human rights organization, Reprieve the US report, it was the longest official execution in US history. The Reprieve US investigation shows it took correctional facility officials between three and three and a half hours to administer the lethal injection.

Accordingly, the convict suffered pain. First, the officials tried unsuccessfully for hours to lay the infusion tube. Then they tried a so-called "cut-down procedure" – i.e., puncturing the arm with a needle or blade.

But James fought back: The autopsy showed severe injuries to the hands and wrists. Witnesses saw his arm still moving slightly at 9:05 p.m., followed shortly after that by clear signs of breathing.

As the head of the human rights organization, Maya Foa was criticized by the "Daily Mail"; this was a case of "cruel and unusual punishment." The US could no longer "pretend that the heinous practice of lethal injection is humane."

But the doomed man's executioners deny that they caused James unnecessary pain. A statement from the prison said: "If the condition of the veins is such that an IV line cannot be placed, the team will place a central line. Luckily this was not necessary and given enough time; an IV line could be placed."

The press also criticized the incident heavily. For example, a reporter from the US newspaper The Atlantic, who witnessed the killing at 9 p.m., wrote: "Something terrible had happened to James while he was strapped to a stretcher behind closed doors, without even a lawyer present to protest against this treatment."

Joe Nathan James was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Faith Hall († 26). Hall left two daughters, then aged three and six. Both have recently campaigned for a life sentence instead of the death penalty for James.

But their protests against the death sentence were shattered: a lawyer filed the final appeal to the US Supreme Court the day before his execution, which was denied around 5:30 p.m. on the day James died.