Hanged, Electrocuted, Poisoned — and Survived: The Murderers Who Outlived Their Execution

The article reviews historical cases of death row inmates who survived execution attempts in the US and UK, including Willie Francis, who survived the electric chair; Anne Greene, who was hanged and awoke before her autopsy; and Romell Broom, who survived 18 failed attempts at lethal injection. The piece raises the legal question of whether it is permissible to try to execute a condemned person again after a failure.

The article reviews historical and contemporary cases of death row inmates who survived execution attempts in the US and UK. Among the cases: Willie Francis, a 17-year-old boy from Louisiana who survived the electric chair in 1946 but was executed a year later; Anne Greene, a 22-year-old servant from England who was hanged in 1650 and awoke before her autopsy; John 'Babbacombe' Lee, who survived a mechanical failure of the gallows in 1885 and had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment; Romell Broom, who survived 18 failed attempts at lethal injection in Ohio in 2009 and died in prison from COVID-19 in 2020; and Doyle Lee Hamm, a cancer-stricken inmate whom Alabama tried to execute in 2018 but the attempt failed. The article raises the legal and ethical question of whether the state is allowed to try to kill a condemned person again after a failure.