The prisoner who appeared to have been awake during the execution

The prisoner who appeared to have been awake during the execution

In 2016, Ronald Bert Smith Jr. was sentenced to die by lethal injection for shooting convenience store clerk Casey Wilson in a 1994 robbery that prosecutors described as an execution-style murder. For 13 minutes after he was sedated, Smith was seen coughing, gasping and moving. He heaved his chest repeatedly during the 30-minute execution process and appeared to raise his arms slightly after two tests were administered to determine consciousness. Smith's legal team says these movements show "he was not anesthetized at any point during the agonizingly long procedure," but Alabama's Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn disputes that Smith was in pain. An investigation continues. Ronald Smith, 45, was pronounced dead at 11.05pm at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, where he was executed by lethal injection, a spokesman for the Alabama Department of Corrections said. Smith visibly struggled for nearly half of the 30-minute execution, clenching his fists and raising his head at the beginning of the procedure. The former Eagle scout Smith was killed on Thursday for the convenience store murder in 1994, raising questions about whether or not the lethal injection is humane. A prison guard performed two consciousness checks before the final two lethal drugs were administered. During the first one, Smith moved his arm. He raised his right arm again shortly after the second consciousness test. Smith was executed after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a second stay on the execution, having twice put it on hold on Thursday. He was originally scheduled to die at 6pm. The Supreme Court gave no explanation for any of its three orders issued in the case on Thursday. The Supreme Court granted a last-minute hold to stop Alabama carrying out another man's death sentence a month ago. Justices gave no reason for the stay in that case either. Alabama's death penalty process is under scrutiny after the high court ruled in January that a similar death penalty law in Florida gave judges too much discretion. Alabama uses the sedative midazolam as the first drug in a three-drug lethal injection combination. Midazolam has been criticized after executions in Oklahoma, Ohio and Arizona during which inmates writhed or gasped or after the execution process extended for unusually long periods of time. Lawyers for Ronald Smith said that movements he made Thursday demonstrate that he wasn't anesthetized during the execution. Oklahoma's use of midazolam as the first in a three-drug protocol was challenged after the April 2014 execution of Clayton Lockett, who writhed on a gurney, moaned and clenched his teeth for several minutes before prison officials tried to halt the process. Lockett died after 43 minutes. A state investigation into Lockett's execution revealed that a failed line caused the drugs to be administered locally instead of into Lockett's blood. Ohio and Arizona have used midazolam as the first in a two-drug protocol. Ohio inmate Dennis McGuire repeatedly gasped and snorted over 26 minutes during his January 2014 execution. The state abandoned that method afterward and has yet to resume executions. Arizona halted executions after the July 2014 lethal injection of convicted killer Joseph Rudolph Wood, who took nearly two hours to die. Smith and other Alabama inmates argued in a court case that the drug was an unreliable sedative and could cause them to feel pain, citing its use in problematic executions. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a challenge by Oklahoma death row inmates that they had failed to prove that the use of midazolam was unconstitutional. Robert Dunham is executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that does not take an official stance on capital punishment but is critical of its application. He said Smith's execution reinforces the argument that midazolam shouldn't be used in executions. 'What occurred during the execution itself is exactly what the medical experts have been saying is likely to occur when midazolam is asked to do something that drug is not designed to do,' he said. 'It is not designed to render somebody unconscious and insensate.' At the beginning of his execution, Smith heaved and coughed repeatedly, clenching his fists and raising his head. A prison guard performed two consciousness checks on Smith Thursday before the final two lethal drugs were administered. In a consciousness test, a prison officer says the inmate's name, brushes his eyelashes and then pinches his left arm. During the first one, Smith moved his arm. He slightly raised his right hand after the second consciousness test. The meaning of those movements will likely be debated. One of Smith's attorneys whispered to another attorney, 'He's reacting,' and pointed out the inmate's repeated movements. The state prison commissioner said he did not see any reaction to the consciousness tests. 'We do know we followed our protocol. We are absolutely convinced of that,' Alabama Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn said Thursday evening. When asked if the movements indicated there was a problem with the execution, Dunn said: 'There will be an autopsy that will be done on Mr Smith and if there were any irregularities those will hopefully be shown or borne out in the autopsy. I think the question is probably better left to the medical experts.' Dunn declined to say whether Smith was given an additional dose of midazolam after the first consciousness test.

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