The state of Alabama has set a date for the execution of a terminally ill man.
Al.com reports the Alabama Supreme Court ordered yesterday that 60-year-old Doyle Lee Hamm is scheduled to be put to death on February 22. Hamm has spent 30 years on Alabama’s death row.
He was convicted in the murder of Patrick Cunningham, a hotel employee in Cullman, Alabama. Cunningham was killed during a robbery that apparently netted just over 400 dollars. Hamm confessed to the murder, and two other men agreed to testify against him in exchange for lesser charges.
Hamm has been battling cranial and lymphatic cancer for three years. Some medical experts worry the treatment for his illnesses has compromised his veins to the point that lethal injection would be impossible. Dr. Mark Heath, an anesthesiologist at Columbia University, says if the lethal injection drugs are administered improperly, Hamm could be paralyzed while conscious and suffocate to death.
Lawyers argue Hamm’s health should prompt officials to reduce his sentence to life without parole.