Execution ‘botched’ as death row prisoner heaves and coughs for 13 minutes after lethal injection

 A man who ‘executed’ a shop worker in a brutal killing heaved and coughed for an agonising 13 minutes as he was put to death by lethal injection.

Ronald Smith, 45, became the 20th death row inmate to be killed in the US this year after he was convicted of fatally shooting Casey Wilson in 1994.


The UK Sun reports that, the journalist who witnessed his execution at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama said the execution didn’t go completely to plan.

He told how Smith heaved and coughed for about 13 minutes, and underwent two tests to make sure he couldn’t feel pain.Before the second and third drugs were administered to stop Smith’s heart, a prison worker carried out consciousness checks by calling out his name and pinching him under his left arm, wrote Kent Faulk.

Smith was pronounced dead by a doctor at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, shortly after 11pm on Thursday night.

He had a final meal of fried chicken and french fries and was visited during the day by his parents and son.Casey Wilson was pistol-whipped and then shot in the head during the robbery, court documents show.

At his 1995 trial, a judge likened the slaying to an execution, saying Wilson ignored his pleas for mercy.The victim had a newborn infant at the time of his death.