INMATE HEAVES DURING EXECUTION BY CONTROVERSIAL DRUG

An Alabama inmate coughed repeatedly and his upper body heaved for at least 13 minutes during an execution using a drug that has previously been used in problematic lethal injections in Oklahoma, Ohio and Arizona. Ronald Bert Smith Jr., 45, pictured, also appeared to move slightly during two tests meant to determine consciousness before he was finally pronounced dead at 11:05 p.m. Thursday — about 30 minutes after the procedure began. Alabama uses the sedative midazolam as the first drug in a three-drug lethal injection combination. Oklahoma’s use of midazolam was unsuccessfully challenged after the 2014 execution of Clayton Lockett, who writhed on a gurney and died after 43 minutes. Smith was convicted of capital murder in the 1994 fatal shooting of Huntsville store clerk Casey Wilson.