On March 26, 2018, Doyle Hamm and the State of Alabama entered into a confidential settlement agreement and jointly dismissed the federal and state litigation, preventing any further execution attempts. The joint voluntary stipulations were filed on March 26, 2018 with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of […]
Along with his second amended complaint and a Rule 32 state post-conviction petition in circuit court in Cullman County, Doyle Hamm filed today a federal habeas corpus petition challenging any second execution, by any means, as a violation of double jeopardy and the prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Counsel […]
In light of the botched execution on February 22, 2018, counsel for Doyle Hamm has amended the §1983 complaint to raise new claims about the unconstitutionality of any other attempted execution, under double jeopardy principles, but also to raise a compelling question under the Baze/Glossip standard: even if there exists no […]
On March 5, 2018, counsel submitted Dr. Mark Heath’s report from his medical examination of Doyle Hamm right after the execution. The accounting is harrowing: Lower extremity puncture wounds (photo 1): 2 Left medial malleolus (photo 2) 2 Right leg, medial aspect, upper calf (photo 3) 1 Right medial malleolus […]
The Intercept has just published an extraordinary account of the last minutes of Doyle Hamm’s life, before he collapsed off the execution gurney and lived. It was almost 11:30 p.m. when word finally came from inside: the execution had been stopped. Danny Hamm and Bernard Harcourt broke down — “grown […]
Powerful piece in The Nation today on the “cruel and unusual punishment of Doyle Lee Hamm,” with a brilliant closing paragraph: “Without any practical justification for carrying on this tradition, law-and-order prosecutors and legislators have argued that the death penalty functions as symbolic justice, the only fit way for the state […]
Roger Cohen has a brilliant essay on Doyle and what he went through last week in the New York Times today. It is really worth reading and sharing. Please share widely! Here is the link: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/02/27/opinion/death-penalty-alabama-doyle-lee-hamm.html
UPDATE: There has been a lot of news coverage of Doyle Hamm’s botched execution, including here in the New York Times, at NBC, even in the UK Daily Mail. Meanwhile, the federal district court in Birmingham has scheduled our next hearing for Tuesday, March 6, 2018. Here is the order: Dr. […]
Just walked out of Holman Prison with Dr. Mark Heath after a two-plus hours physical examination of Doyle Hamm. Very quickly, Thursday night’s execution was worse than anticipated. While he was strapped down arms and legs to the gurney, the IV personnel simultaneously worked on both legs at the same […]
