WASHINGTON, DC — One-third of the executions by lethal
injection in the US this year were "botched," a capital punishment
watchdog group said Friday.
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The Death Penalty Information Center (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.
The governor of Oregon this month commuted the sentences of all
17 inmates on the state's death row to life in prison.
This year there were five executions in
Oklahoma, five in
Texas, three in Arizona, two in Alabama, two in Missouri and one in
Mississippi.
Among those executed in 2022 were "prisoners with
serious mental illness, brain damage, intellectual disability, and strong
claims of innocence," according to the DPIC.
It said the number of death sentences imposed was also on
the decline with just 20 so far this year.
In perhaps the most notable case, the young man who carried
out the 2018 mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, was given
life in prison after a jury declined to sentence him to death.
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