What's Next After Postponed Execution?

All sides are picking up the pieces following the postponed execution of Alabama death row inmate Doyle Lee Hamm. State officials called off the lethal injection process after the medical team unsuccessfully tried to find a usable vein to administer the three drug cocktail used in capital punishment. Technicians worked to insert the needle repeatedly in the prisoner’s legs, ankles, and groin in a process that caused Hamm severe bleeding and pain. The inmate’s legal team had argued that his medical history of drug use and Hepatitis-C made the lethal injection process unconstitutionally cruel. Thursday night’s postponed execution means Alabama’s Attorney General will have to apply for a new execution date. Hamm was sentenced to die after being convicted of murder in the 1987 slaying of a motel clerk.