Unprecedented 90-minute delay in killer's execution

In an unprecedented delay, the execution of a man was held up today as a state team worked to find a suitable vein for the lethal injection.

“It don’t work,” convicted killer Joseph Lewis Clark said as the team initially tried to start the injection. Prison officials said his vein had collapsed.

Clark, 57, died at 11.26am. At the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville, nearly 90 minutes after the execution was scheduled to begin.

The problems with the execution comes amid a growing US debate about lethal injection, as some death-row inmates say their executions could be unconstitutionally painful, either because of the drug combination or because specially-trained medical personnel would not handle the procedure.

In Clark’s case, the team worked for about 25 minutes to find a vein in his arm before proceeding with just the shunt in his left arm. At one point, a team member rolled up the leg of Clark’s blue pants, looking for a vein in his right leg.

Prison procedures call for inserting two shunts, or tubes, usually one in each arm, with one serving as a backup, prisons spokeswoman Andrea Dean said. In Clark’s case, the execution team found one good vein, but that collapsed.

The curtain separating Clark from the area where witnesses watched the execution was closed during injection attempts.

Clark, who was sentenced to death for killing a garage attendant during a spree of robberies in 1984, could be heard moaning from behind the curtain.

When the curtain reopened at 11.17am, Clark still had a shunt in his left arm and his eyes were closed. He raised his head several times and breathed deeply before becoming still.

“This has never happened,” the spokeswoman said of the delay, the longest since the state resumed executions in 1999.

Clark had a history of drug use and prisons director Terry Collins said that could have been factor in the difficulty in finding a vein.

He said the department would review the execution.

In his final statement, Clark apologised to the victim’s family, who held hands.

“I would like to say to family and friends that I didn’t get to talk to … that was wondering how I felt, I would like them to know that I asked God for forgiveness, that I asked the Lord to save me from my sins,” he said.

“And I asked God to forgive those who are participating in this here today.”