Faith Hall
Image: Toni Melton
Faith Hall, aged 25, was murdered in 1994. The man convicted of the murder, her ex-boyfriend Joe Nathan James Jr. was sentenced to die for the murder.
Joe Nathan James Jr.
Image: Associated Press
Ms Hall's family opposed the sentence. Her daughters, who were small children when their mother died, now adults, said they would have preferred that Mr James spend the rest of his life locked up as opposed to being executed. But law is law, the sentenced was found to be proper and, after all his appeals were exhausted, a mere 27 or 28 years after the crime took place, the State of Alabama finally got around to executing Joe James Jr.
And you would think that would be the end of that awful story. But no, not so fast. It took the authorities about 3 hours to execute him. A follow up postmortem examination discovered countless needle holes on and around pretty much all the veins on Mr James' body. I didn't get to see any more detail but I suspect late Mr James was an intravenous drug user - that is the most common cause for veins so bad it is really hard to get a needle into them. And it sounds like the prison crew tasked with the task literally took 3 hours to be able to administer the lethal injection.
As I have said already, I am opposed to death penalty. But I respect those who support it. But I think if you are a humane person, regardless of which side you back in this debate, you would insist that the system administer death penalty without the condemned having to wait for decades for their date with the grim reaper, or having to live through hours of pain and suffering before the death actually comes.
References
Alabama put inmate through ‘3 hours of pain and suffering’ in ‘longest execution ever’
Lee Brown, New York Post, 16 August 2022
Slow wheels of deadly justice
@borepstein , 11 June 2022