Alva Campbell, Terminally Ill Prisoner Who Survived Botched Execution Attempt, Dies on Ohio Death Row

Alva Campbell (pic­tured), the ter­mi­nal­ly ill death-row pris­on­er who sur­vived a botched exe­cu­tion attempt by the state of Ohio on November 15, 2017, has died. 

Campbell, 69, was afflict­ed with lung can­cer, chron­ic obstruc­tive pul­monary dis­ease, res­pi­ra­to­ry fail­ure, prostate can­cer, and severe pneu­mo­nia; he relied on a colosto­my bag, need­ed oxy­gen treat­ments four times a day, and required a walk­er for even lim­it­ed mobil­i­ty. He was found unre­spon­sive in his cell at Chillicothe Correctional Institution in Ross County in the predawn hours of March 3 and was pro­nounced dead at a local hos­pi­tal at 5:24 a.m.

Ohio cor­rec­tions per­son­nel were aware pri­or to the failed exe­cu­tion attempt that Campbell was grave­ly ill and phys­i­cal­ly debil­i­tat­ed. Campbell’s lawyers unsuc­cess­ful­ly argued in court that Campbell’s med­ical con­di­tion had com­pro­mised his veins, mak­ing IV access prob­lem­at­ic and cre­at­ing the risk that any lethal-injec­tion exe­cu­tion would be uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly tor­tur­ous. Lead coun­sel, assis­tant fed­er­al pub­lic defend­er David Stebbins, warned that the exe­cu­tion could become a ​“spec­ta­cle” if prison staff were unable to find a suit­able vein. Calling Campbell ​“an old and frail man who is no longer a threat to any­one,” Stebbins said that “[k]illing Alva Campbell is sim­ply not necessary.” 

Ohio’s attempt to put Campbell to death was delayed for near­ly an hour as exe­cu­tion­ers assessed his veins. Witnesses then watched for anoth­er half hour as prison per­son­nel used an ultra­vi­o­let light to probe Campbell’s arm for a vein, repeat­ed­ly stick­ing his arms and legs. Columbus Dispatch reporter Marty Schladen, a media wit­ness to the exe­cu­tion attempt, report­ed that when he was stuck in the leg, ​“Campbell threw his head back and appeared to cry out in pain.” After fail­ing four times to find a suit­able vein in which to set an intra­venous exe­cu­tion line, Ohio called off the exe­cu­tion and Governor John Kasich grant­ed Campbell a tem­po­rary reprieve and resched­uled his exe­cu­tion for June 2019. 

The botched exe­cu­tion attempt was the fourth time in twelve years that exe­cu­tion­ers in Ohio had pro­longed dif­fi­cul­ty in set­ting an exe­cu­tion IV, and the sec­ond time in which an exe­cu­tion attempt was halt­ed. The fail­ure high­lights the grow­ing prob­lem states face in attempt­ing to exe­cute an aging and increas­ing­ly infirm death-row population.

On February 22, 2018, Alabama attempt­ed to exe­cute Doyle Hamm, a 60-year-old death-row pris­on­er with ter­mi­nal cra­nial and lym­phat­ic can­cer that his lawyer had warned ren­dered his veins unus­able for lethal injec­tion. In a failed exe­cu­tion that media reports described as ​“hor­ri­bly botched,” exe­cu­tion­ers repeat­ed­ly punc­tured Hamm’s legs and groin in unsuc­cess­ful attempts, span­ning more than two-and-a-half hours, to set an IV line. Four days lat­er, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the exe­cu­tion of Vernon Madison, a 67-year-old Alabama death-row pris­on­er with vas­cu­lar demen­tia caused by strokes that have left him legal­ly blind, incon­ti­nent, unable to walk inde­pen­dent­ly, and with no mem­o­ry of the offense for which he was sen­tenced to death. Alabama is sched­uled to exe­cute 83-year-old Walter Leroy Moody on April 19.