Attorneys claim inmate suffered injuries during attempted execution

Alabama officials called off the Thursday lethal injection of Alan Eugene Miller because of time concerns and trouble accessing the inmate’s veins, according to the Associated Press.

A judge has now granted a request from Miller's lawyers to allow them to photograph Miller's "injuries" they claim exist and were caused by the attempted execution. Attorneys are expected to meet with Miller and get those pictures this weekend.

Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said the state stopped the scheduled execution of Miller at 11:30 p.m. after they determined they could not get the lethal injection underway before the midnight deadline. That decision came almost three hours after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the execution to begin.

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“Due to time constraints resulting from the lateness of the court proceedings, the execution was called off once it was determined the condemned inmate’s veins could not be accessed in accordance with our protocol before the expiration of the death warrant,” Hamm said.

Hamm said “accessing the veins was taking a little bit longer than we anticipated.” He did not know exactly how long the team tried to establish a connection, but noted there are a number of procedures to be done before the team begins trying to connect the IV line.

Miller, 57, was sentenced to death after being convicted of a 1999 workplace rampage in which he killed Terry Jarvis, Lee Holdbrooks and Scott Yancy.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey released a statement early Friday morning.

In Alabama, we are committed to law and order and upholding justice. Despite the circumstances that led to the cancellation of this execution, nothing will change the fact that a jury heard the evidence of this case and made a decision. It does not change the fact that Mr. Miller never disputed his crimes. And it does not change the fact that three families still grieve. We all know full well that Michael Holdbrooks, Terry Lee Jarvis and Christopher Scott Yancey did not choose to die by bullets to the chest. Tonight, my prayers are with the victims’ families and loved ones as they are forced to continue reliving the pain of their loss.

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“It is hard to see how they can persist with this broken method of execution that keeps going catastrophically wrong, again and again. In its desperation to execute, Alabama is experimenting on prisoners behind closed doors — surely the definition of cruel and unusual punishment,” Maya Foa, director of Reprieve US Forensic Justice Initiative, a human rights group opposed to the death penalty, said in a statement to the AP.

The appeal made by Miller’s attorneys said the state lost the paperwork requesting his execution be carried out using nitrogen hypoxia, a method legally available to him but never before used in the country. An injunction was granted but the state appealed that decision in an attempt to carry out the execution by Thursday's deadline.

The U.S. Supreme Court was split in its decision to allow the state to move forward with the execution, handing down its ruling to lift the injunction just before 9 p.m. Thursday.

However, the execution was called off and Miller was returned to his regular cell at a south Alabama prison.