Gruesome

Botched Execution Photos Revealed

Of Angel Diaz, executed in 2006.

In the wake of Oklahoma’s botched execution of Clayton Lockett in April, autopsy photos of another, older botched execution have been obtained by The New Republic. Angel Diaz was convicted of murder in 1986 and put to death in December 2006. His execution was botched in the same way as Lockett’s was: The execution team missed his vein, leading the drugs to flow into the surrounding arm tissue rather than the bloodstream. Autopsy photos show nearly foot-long chemical burns on both of Diaz’s arms, with skin beginning to slough off, showing subcutaneous skin. A venous jugular distention in Diaz’s neck also shows he may have struggled for air. Diaz’s execution lasted 34 minutes, instead of the expected 10 to 15. They’re gruesome, but so is execution.