The Atlantic reports on the botched execution of Joe Nathan James Jr. in Alabama, which Reprieve analysis has found took three to three and a half hours after failure to insert IV lines into his body during a lethal injection. Reprieve’s Forensic Justice Initiative funded an independent autopsy to piece together the events of the execution.
Director of Reprieve US Maya Foa said “Lethal injection was developed to mask the very torture it inflicts and when a prisoner is executed in secret, the only person who can tell the world what really happened is dead. We’ve seen time and again states suppressing or delaying autopsy results following executions that appear to have gone disastrously wrong. Autopsies help tell the story that the body leaves behind.”
