And in a country where regional political culture strongly favours retributive justice, it is no wonder capital punishment remains an enduring part of the American legal system.
But following Christa Pike's botched lethal injection last week, fresh questions are being raised over whether executing convicted murderers and rapists outweighs the risks of an innocent person being put to death, or of an execution going so badly that a prisoner is left to die in agony, or even survives the attempt.
Pike was injected with at least seven needles as medical staff attempted to give her two lethal doses of pentobarbital on September 30. Her arms were left 'swollen, burnt, and blistered', her attorneys said, but she did not die.
The execution was halted, and Pike was rushed to hospital. After a week of life-saving treatment, Pike is now conscious and speaking while shackled to a hospital bed.
The prison chief who oversaw Pike's attempted execution is due to step down from his role later this month following the scandal, which saw the convicted murderer cry out in pain during the botched procedure.
The execution attempt lasted almost an hour before it was ultimately halted. During the ordeal, Pike complained that 'my arm feels like it's about to burst open' and, at another point, asked, 'Does this happen like that?'
After 53 minutes, media witnesses were ushered out of the execution chamber, with reporters saying they could still hear Pike loudly snoring as the attempt was brought to an end.
But Pike's botched execution is just one of a long list of failed and horrifying executions in the US in recent decades, some of which have seen prisoners engulfed in flames, convulse and vomit, or bleed profusely from the face in scenes resembling a horror film.
Here are 11 of the most disturbing botched executions recorded in American history.
The man who suffocated to death for 22 minutes
Kenneth Eugene Smith was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder-for-hire slaying of a preacher's wife in 1988, where he was paid just $1,000 for the hit.
On January 25, Smith was led inside the execution chamber at the William C. Holman prison in Atmore, Alabama, and strapped to a gurney.
As he spoke his final words, delivered through the gas mask that had been placed on his face, Smith made a heart sign with his left hand to his family before declaring, 'Tonight Alabama causes humanity to take a step backwards... I’m leaving with love, peace and light.'
What followed was what witnesses called a 'horrific' 22-minute ordeal as he slowly suffocated on a stream of 100 percent nitrogen gas.
The murderer's spiritual guide, Jeff Hood, described the execution as the 'worst thing' he had ever seen, claiming prison officials gasped in shock as he died far slower than anticipated.
'When they turned the nitrogen on, he began to convulse, he popped up on the gurney over and over again, he shook the whole gurney,' Hood said.
At one point as the killer tore against his restraints, his wife Deanna, wearing a T-shirt reading 'Never Alone', desperately cried out for him from the witness box.
'(Smith) kept breathing for what could possibly be up to nine minutes, ten minutes, unbelievable evil was unleashed tonight in Alabama... that was torture,' Hood said.
Smith was officially pronounced dead at 8.25pm local time, 22 minutes after the nitrogen gas was first administered.
A 30-minute execution condemned by Supreme Court judges as 'cruel'
Despite Kenneth Smith's grim end from nitrogen hypoxia, murderer Anthony Boyd was executed in Alabama just a year later using the same method.
On October 23, 2025 Boyd was led into the death chamber at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama.
He was strapped to a gurney and fitted with a mask through which nitrogen gas was pumped, with the protocol requiring the flow to continue for five minutes after his death.
Boyd's execution lasted more than 30 minutes. Witnesses said he repeatedly convulsed and heaved, gasping for air around 200 times during the ordeal.
'He was sitting there, suffocating, trying to breathe for 19 minutes,' said the Rev Jeff Hood, a spiritual adviser to Boyd who was present in the room.
Boyd was pronounced dead after 15 minutes, but the disturbing scenes witnessed inside the chamber would remain with those present long after the execution was over.
The US Supreme Court had refused to block the execution, although Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, described nitrogen hypoxia as a 'cruel form of execution that should not be allowed to continue'.
In her dissenting opinion, Sotomayor urged readers to open the stopwatch app on their phones and let it run for four minutes.
'Now imagine for that entire time, you are suffocating,' she wrote. 'You want to breathe; you have to breathe. But you are strapped to a gurney with a mask on your face pumping your lungs with nitrogen gas.'
In his final statement, Boyd maintained his innocence. His final words were: 'Let's get it.'
Convulsions, vomiting and a lethal injection gone wrong
John Marion Grant, was sentenced to die on October 28, 2021 by lethal injection for the 1998 killing of prison worker Gay Carter in the kitchen of the Dick Conner Correctional Facility.
At the time of the murder, Grant was already serving what amounted to a life sentence for armed robbery.
Under Oklahoma's death penalty law, three drugs must be administered, which campaigners and Grant's legal team said would cause him unnecessary and excruciating pain.
Witnesses in the death chamber at the time of Grant's execution recalled the horror of the moments following the administration of the first drug, midazolam, a sedative.
The 60-year-old convulsed and vomited for several minutes, leading members of the execution team to wipe the vomit from his face and neck.
Media witness Sean Murphy said that 'Grant's body shook and jerked nearly two dozen times before vomit spurted from his mouth and spilled down his neck.'
'His entire upper back repeatedly lifted off the gurney,' reporter Dan Snyder said.
For the next several minutes, medical staff entered the room multiple times to clean up and remove vomit from a still-breathing Grant.
The heart attack on the gurney
On April 29, 2014, Clayton D. Lockett was put to death in Oklahoma aged 38 through lethal injection.
He had been sentenced to capital punishment for the brutal kidnapping, rape and murder of 19-year-old Stephanie Neiman in 1999.
The day of his death, Lockett refused to cooperate and attempted to cut his arms before being tasered by prison staff.
He was strapped to the death chamber gurney, before an excruciating ordeal began as medical staff attempted to find an accessible vein.
Lockett was pricked twice in his arm, once in his bicep, three times in his jugular vein, once in his subclavian vein by his collar bone, and twice in his left foot until a needle was finally inserted into the femoral vein in his groin.
He was declared unconscious at 6.33pm after midazolam, had been administered. However, once vecuronium bromide (a paralytic) and potassium chloride (to stop the heart beating), were injected, Lockett began to violently struggle.
One witness said 'he began breathing heavily, writhing on the gurney, clenching his teeth and straining to lift his head off the pillow.'
Lockett was able to speak, saying 'Oh, man', 'I'm not...' and 'something's wrong'.
His lawyer later said the ordeal, which from start to finish lasted 43 minutes, 'looked like torture.'
A doctor present stopped the procedure when it became clear Lockett had a 'vein failure', and the execution was called off at 6.56pm. However, Lockett subsequently died of a heart attack at 7.06.
An investigation found that although the drugs had been properly administered, a cloth, which had been placed over Lockett's groin, had stopped staff from spotting that the IV connection had failed because of the collapsed vein.
Blood, burns and 'brutal torture' through electrocution
Allen Lee Davis was executed on July 8, 1999 through electrocution for the 1982 murders of pregnant woman Nancy Weiler and her nine and five-year-old daughters, Kristina and Katherine.
Davis's execution was the first in Florida's new electric chair, built especially so it could accommodate a man of his size (350 pounds).
After being tied to the electric chair and electrocuted, Davis began to bleed profusely.
Witnesses present said the blood stain on his shirt amounted to the size of a dinner plate. Davis was still alive during the ordeal.
The 54-year-old suffered burns to his head, leg and groin area during his time in the electric chair.
An investigation later found that Davis had begun bleeding before any electricity was applied due to blood thinner medication that he was on.
Following the botched execution, a Florida Supreme Court justice described photographs of his body as appearing to show someone who had been 'brutally tortured to death.'
The execution was witnessed by the Florida State Senator at the time, Ginny Brown-Waite, who at first was 'shocked' to see the blood, until she realised that the blood was forming the shape of a cross, taking it as a sign from God showing he supported the execution.
The execution that ended in flames
In March of 1997, 39-year-old Pedro Medina was put to death by electrocution for the brutal 1982 murder of an Orlando woman.
Dorothy James, a 52-year-old primary school teacher was found dead in her apartment. She had been stabbed numerous times, gagged and left to die.
Medina's trial itself was controversial, after the Cuban refugee exhibited signs of mental instability, including eating his own feces.
He was also placed on suicide watch and psychiatric reports suggested he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.
However, he was deemed competent to stand trial and ultimately handed a death sentence.
Fifteen years later, on March 25, Medina was strapped to the electric chair nicknamed 'Old Sparky' at Florida State Prison.
His last words before the electrocution began were 'I am still innocent.'
As the electrical current was switched on, a crown of foot-high flames shot from the headpiece Medina was wearing, filling the death chamber with thick smoke, gagging the two-dozen witnesses present.
A prison official then threw a switch to manually cut the power, prematurely ending the two-minute cycle of 2,000 volts.
Medina's chest continued to heave until the flames finally extinguished and he died.
Medina's pastor, Reverend Glen Dickson, later testified that he saw flames rising from Medina's head and smelled a pungent odour.
He said the 39-year-old took three laboured breaths after the current was switched off and the straps holding him in the chair were loosened. An autopsy later revealed that the current had destroyed Medina's brain.
The serial killer who suffocated to death while flipping off his jailer
Donald Eugene Harding, a serial killer responsible for at least seven murders in the American Southwest, was sentenced to death in Arizona by the highly controversial and now largely obsolete method of the gas chamber.
Arrested in 1980, Harding spent 12 years on death row before his execution was scheduled for shortly after midnight on April 6, 1992.
At around 12.05am, the 43-year-old was led into the gas chamber and strapped into a chair. Once the chamber had been sealed, a curtain was raised, allowing witnesses to watch him through the glass.
According to Attorney General Grant Woods, Harding looked towards him and began shouting obscenities. Reporters also said they saw him raise his middle finger towards Woods as the gas began filling the chamber.
As the execution progressed, Harding thrashed violently against the restraints, his body convulsing as he struggled for breath.
Journalist Cameron Harper, who witnessed the execution, said Harding's spasms and jerking movements continued for six minutes and 37 seconds.
'Obviously, this man was suffering. This was a violent death … an ugly event. We put animals to death more humanely,' he said.
Reporter Carla McClain added, 'Harding's death was extremely violent. He was in great pain. I heard him gasp and moan. I saw his body turn from red to purple.'
Another reporter who witnessed the execution reportedly suffered from insomnia for several weeks while two others were 'walking vegetables' for some time after.
Moans and gushing blood in Virginia's 'worst execution in history'
In 1990, Virginia executed 44-year-old Wilbert Lee Evans in the electric chair after he was sentenced to death for the murder of a local official.
Evans had been arrested for previous offences and was being transferred back to jail following a court hearing by Deputy Sheriff William Truesdale when he grabbed the officer's revolver and shot him in the chest.
During his incarceration in 1984, Evans had also helped save 12 prison guards and two nurses who had been taken hostage by knife-wielding inmates during what was described as the largest death row breakout in US history at Mecklenburg Correctional Center.
Despite pleas for clemency, both the Supreme Court and Virginia's governor rejected his appeals, and his execution was scheduled for October 17, 1990.
On the day of his death, Evans apologised to Truesdale's family, and expressed regret for the murder and for previous crimes he had committed.
Before he was led to the electric chair, Evans pocketed a copy of a plea on his behalf written by US Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, an opponent of capital punishment and the only judge to vote against the deicsion to turn down Evans's appeal. On it, he wrote 'Please bury this with me.'
As soon as the first jolt of electricity was administered, witnesses described scenes from a horror film, as blood began to gush from the 44-year-old's eyes, mouth and nose.
Blood spewed from the mask on his face, drenching his shirt with blood and causing a sizzling sound as blood fell from his lips. Evans could be heard moaning throughout.
He was pronounced dead after two shocks were administered
Russ Ford, the prison chaplain at the time who witnessed Evans's execution, said he believed Evans's execution amounted to torture.
The Virginian-Pilot later called Evans's execution 'one of the worst in Virginia's history.'
Witnesses sprayed with deadly chemicals
Raymond Landry was convicted of capital murder in 1982 and sentenced to death by lethal injection for the killing of a Texas restaurant owner.
Landry shot dead 33-year-old Kosmas Prittis at his Dairy Maid restaurant after robbing more than $2,300 and physically assaulting Prittis' wife.
On December 3, 1988, Landry, 37, was strapped to a gurney and staff began administering the deadly dose.
Two minutes later, chaos ensued after the syringe came out of his vein, spraying witnesses with the deadly chemicals before staff hurried to pull a curtain across the room.
It remained closed for fourteen minutes while the execution team reinserted the catheter into the vein. Witnesses reported 'at least one groan' coming from Landry.
Landry died minutes later after the tube was reinserted.
The drunk executioner and officials who left the death chamber in disgust
In 1983, Jimmy Lee Gray was put to death aged 34 by the state of Mississippi for the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of three-year-old Deressa Jean Scales in 1976.
Gray who lived in the same apartment block as Scales, lured the toddler into his car and drove her to the woods, where he raped her and murdered her by pushing her face in mud. He then threw her body off a bridge.
Gray's own mother campaigned for his execution, pleading with the state's Supreme Court to avoid showing mercy to her son.
On September 2, 1983, Gray was led into the gas chamber at Mississippi State Penitentiary and restrained in a chair. He declined to give a final statement.
At 12.10am, cyanide pellets were dropped into the chamber producing a plume of deadly gas.
As Gray breathed in the gas, his face began contorting in distress. He then began to flail around and bang his head into the metal bar behind him.
Witnesses in the room say he convulsed and gasped, appearing to be in severe pain. He began foaming at the mouth, and reporters in the room counted at least eleven moans of anguish.
'Saliva was oozing from his mouth. His fingers were tightly gripping his thumbs. His chest was visibly heaving in sickening agony,' one doctor later testified.
Officials had to clear the room eight minutes after the gas was released when Gray's desperate gasps repulsed witnesses.
It took 12 minutes for Gray to die after the cyanide pellets were released.
Later it was revealed that the executioner, Barry Bruce, was drunk.
The man who burned to death
During a burglary of Hatchell's home, Coppola and two accomplices severely beat her, and bound her with venetian blind cords.
Coppola repeatedly slammed Hatchell's head into the floor until she died.
On August 10, 1982, Coppola was executed via electric chair at Virginia State Penitentiary aged 38. No media witnesses were present in the death chamber.
Although no details were ever released about the execution, an attorney who was present later stated that it took two 55-second jolts of electricity to kill Coppola, with the man catching on fire.
The second jolt produced 'the odor and sizzling sound of burning flesh,' according to the attorney, and the death chamber filled with smoke as fire emitted from the electrodes on his head and leg.
Source: Mail Online, Eliana Silver, October 11, 2026
"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde
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