Most gruesome execution in US: Prisoner 'baked to death' as fire erupts from body during 14-minute electric chair ordeal
A CONVICTED murderer met the most gruesome of ends after he was slowly 'fried' from the inside in a botched execution.
It took three shocks and 14 minutes to kill John Louis Evans when the electric chair he was sitting in malfunctioned.
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The inmate, who was executed in 1983 at the age of 33 in the southeastern US state of Alabama, had robbed and murdered pawn shop owner Edward Nassar while his two young daughters were in the store.
Members of the public and media called for Evans to be given the death penalty, as Alabama had passed a law in 1976 that reinstated the death penalty.
The sentence was carried out in Holman Prison using an electric chair named “Yellow Mama”, because of its traffic yellow paint job, which was applied by an inmate in 1927.
It had not been used since 1965, but was made operational again for Evans. execution.
The death of the pawnbroker killer required three applications of electricity over an extended period of time, despite his lawyer's protests on the grounds of cruel punishment.
After the first electric shock was administered, sparks and flames were said to have erupted from the electrode attached to Evans' leg; it burst from the strap holding it in place and burst into flames.
Smoke and sparks then emerged near Evans' left temple, but the killer still had a heartbeat, so the electrode was reattached to his leg and another shock of electricity was applied.
Once again the doctors found a heartbeat. A third and final electric shock was applied.
Eyewitnesses described the “stench of burning flesh” as “nauseating”.
Evans' attorney Russell Canan later recalled, “His body slammed against the straps restraining him in the electric chair and his fist locked permanently.
'The electrode apparently burst from the strap holding it in place. A large cloud of grayish smoke and sparks poured from under the hood covering Mr. Evans' face.
“An overwhelming stench of burnt flesh and clothing began to permeate the witness room.
More smoke came from his leg and head. Once again the doctors examined Mr. Evans. The doctors reported that his heart was still beating and that he was still alive.
'At 8.44am the doctors declared him dead. The execution of John Evans lasted fourteen minutes.'
Evans had admitted to a jury that he killed his victim in 1977, claiming he felt the pawnbroker was going to grab a gun and shoot him.
He also confessed to a series of other crimes, including more than 30 armed robberies, nine kidnappings and two extortion schemes.
Prosecutors reportedly rejected his guilty plea because they wanted to secure an execution through conviction by a jury.
The death penalty was likely imposed in light of Evans stating that he felt no remorse and would kill again under the same circumstances.
He also threatened to escape and kill every member of the jury if they did not sentence him to death.
In a similar case of a “botched” execution, convicted murderer Kenneth Eugene Smith58, Sat killed Thursday by nitrogen gasalso in the state of Alabama.
Witnesses claimed he was in pain for a total of 22 minutes gas began to flow in a display that one journalist described as the “most violent execution” he had ever seen.
Moments before breathing in the nitrogen gas through a face mask, similar to what a firefighter would wear, Smith said, “Tonight, Alabama is making humanity take a step back.
“Humanity has risen… I leave with love, peace and light… I love you. Thank you for supporting me. I love you all.”
He then signed “I love you” with his left hand as his family watched from the death chamber window.
The Alabama attorney general's office expected Smith to quickly lose consciousness after the gas began flowing, but witnesses said he remained alert for several minutes.
He reportedly shook and writhed in the gurney, jerking his head back and forth for about two minutes from the time the gas was released, and then breathed heavily for five to seven minutes before he died.
The state had described the method of execution by nitrogen gas as “the most painless and humane method of execution known to man”.
America's most infamous executions
The issue of the death penalty in the US has once again been thrust into the spotlight following the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith
The US Sun has listed some of the most infamous executions, including ones that didn't go according to plan.
Jesse Tafero
Tafero was sentenced to death after he was wrongly accused of shooting two police officers in 1976.
His death was anything but ordinary, as the electric chair he was strapped to malfunctioned three times and his head erupted into six inches of flame.
“It took seven minutes for the prison doctor to pronounce him dead, seven minutes of heaving, buckling, flames and smoke,” an eyewitness later said.
Clayton Lockett
Lockett was sentenced to death for murder and rape in 2000, but his execution in 2014 was called off after it failed.
Nine failed attempts were made to inject potassium chloride into his veins until officials stuck the needle into his groin.
The injection slowed his heart rather than stopping it completely before a doctor inserted the needle into an artery, causing blood to flow over him.
The execution was called off, but Lockett died of a heart attack on the way to the hospital.
George Stinney
The 14-year-old was sentenced to death in 1944 for the murder of two girls, despite a lack of evidence.
Stinney was too small to fit in the electric chair, so he had to sit on books, but he survived the first round of 2,400 volts.
Prison guards had to use two more electric shots to kill the teenager.
Stinney's conviction was overturned by a South Carolina court in 2014, 70 years after he was executed.
John Evans
Evans had shot and killed an Alabama pawn shop owner in 1977 during a clumsy raid on the store.
He initially survived the initial 1,900-volt shocks, but an electrode came loose, resulting in a gruesome scene.
“A large cloud of gray smoke and sparks poured from under the hood covering Mr. Evans' face,” his lawyer said.
“An overwhelming stench of burnt flesh and clothing began to permeate the witness room.”
Evan's heart was still beating after the second electrocution and he eventually died after the third shock, in a 14-minute ordeal.
Pedro Medina
Medina, a Cuban refugee, was convicted in 1982 of murdering his neighbor Dorothy James.
He died in an electric chair fifteen years later, but a journalist reported his horrific ordeal.
“Blue and orange flames extended up to three feet from the right side of his head,” the reporter said.
“They burned him alive,” said witness Michael Minerva.
Journalist Lee Hedgepeth, who was present on the day, told the BBC about Smith's reaction to the gas: “Kenny begins to shake violently against the straps holding him down.
“That violent shaking lasts about four or five minutes.
“I have witnessed five executions in Alabama, four of which were lethal injections, one with nitrogen, and this was the most violent execution I have ever seen.”
It was the first time a new execution method had been used in the US since lethal injection was introduced in 1982.
Smith was one of two men convicted of the 1988 murder of Elizabeth Sennett.
Prosecutors said he and his accomplice paid $1,000 each to kill the woman on the orders of her pastor husband, who was in debt and wanted to collect on her life insurance.
Elizabeth's husband, Karel Sennett Sr. committed suicide when the investigation named him as a suspect, court documents show.
Smith was supposed to be killed by lethal injection in 2022, but the execution happened was called off when prison officials determined they did not have enough time to establish a second IV line before the death sentence expired at midnight.
The killer's attorneys claimed he was strapped to the gurney at 8 p.m. and not removed until four hours later, stating “an IV team entered the execution chamber and began repeatedly inserting needles into Mr. Smith's arms and hands well beyond the point at which the executioners should have known that it was not reasonably possible to gain access to a vein.”
The Alabama Prisons Commissioner said “the people attempting to carry out the execution had unsuccessfully attempted to place a line in 'several locations'.”
John Forrest Parker, the other man convicted of Sennett's murder, was executed in 2010.
An estimated three percent of American executions between 1890 and 2010 were botched.
A professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College, Austin Sarat, reported that 276 of a total of 8,776 executions over the past 120 years went wrong in some way.
Problems with the executions ranged from prisoners catching fire while being electrocuted, as in Evans' case, to strangling during hangings rather than having their necks broken.
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