A death row inmate who survived a failed execution in Alabama, USA, died of thyroid cancer three years later.



Doyle Lee Hamm, 64, a death row inmate in an Alabama state prison, died of thyroid cancer the day before, his lawyer said on the 29th (local time), the Associated Press reported.



Hamm was sentenced to death for stealing $410 after shooting and killing an employee at a motel in Coleman, Alabama in 1987.



However, after Hamm was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2014, he sued the Supreme Court, claiming that execution was impossible because of his battle with cancer.



The Alabama Department of Justice countered that the suspension of executions for cancer was equivalent to commuting the sentence, and the Supreme Court eventually authorized Hamm's execution.



Accordingly, the Alabama Department of Corrections attempted to execute Hamm's execution in February 2018, but was unsuccessful.



At the time, the correctional bureau announced that it would execute the death row by injecting a lethal injection into a vein under the knee of the lower body, not the upper body, after conducting a medical examination on the death row inmate according to the court order.



The reason was that it was difficult to find blood vessels that could inject poison into Ham's upper body due to his battle with cancer.



On February 22, 2018, the day of his execution, Hamm applied for a final suspension of execution with the Supreme Court, but was rejected.



After Ham was taken to the death row, the Alabama Department of Corrections began executions.



However, the executioner inserted a needle into Ham's body six times, but could not find a vein to inject the poison into.



In the end, two and a half hours later, the Department of Corrections declared the execution impossible.



A month after the failed execution, the Department of Corrections announced that it would not attempt any further executions against Ham, saving his life.



In the end, however, Hamm died of thyroid cancer after the failed execution, after which he spent three more years on death row.



In US prisons, lethal injections often cause execution failures.



On the 28th of last month, in Oklahoma, death row inmate John Grant, 60, suffered multiple convulsions and vomiting after receiving lethal injections.



(Photo = AP, Yonhap News)