John Louis Evans III's head and leg smouldered during his botched execution, during which doctors twice went to confirm he was dead only to find his heart still beating. Smoke and the 'nauseating' smell of burning flesh billowed from the Death Row prisoner hooded and bound to an electric chair. His fists clenched and his body 'slammed' against his restraints as thousands of volts coursed through him.
Execution goes wrong at Holman Prison
Appalled onlookers believed he would need to be shot as repeated attempts to carry out the execution proved unsuccessful. Witnesses watched as a doctor summoned to confirm Evans was dead nodded after checking his pulse. Initially, they believed this signalled he had passed away. In reality, he was still breathing.
Evans had been found guilty of the 1977 killing of a shop owner in front of his children during a violent crime spree. He brazenly told the jury at his trial "if you don't come back with a death penalty, I'm going to get out and I'm going to do it again", even reportedly threatening to hunt down each juror individually.
When a judge temporarily granted a stay of execution just six hours before he was due to die, Evans was reportedly "dismayed, crying and visibly very upset", reports the Mirror US.
Witness accounts of the botched execution
A fortnight later, on April 22, 1983, Evans was secured to an electric chair nicknamed "Yellow Momma" at Holman Prison, named after its striking bright yellow colour. The chair had been constructed by a prisoner nearly 60 years previously and had remained unused for almost two decades.
One observer, journalist Mark Harris, recalled "the chilling sight of Evans' chest rhythmically rising and falling after what was supposed to be an instantaneously lethal dose of electricity". He noted that prior to electrocution Evans was secured to the chair by his legs, chest, arms and trunk, with a black belt around his forehead. He reported his "face was pure calm" before it disappeared behind a black veil.
"At the instant [prison governor JD] White pulled the switch and sent 1,900 volts burning into Evans, who clenched his fists and arched his body rigidly into the restraining straps, the folly of being prepared was gone," Harris recounted. "A moment later, as spark and flame crackled around Evans' head and shaven, razor-nicked left leg, white smoke seeped from beneath the veil and curled from his head and leg. Midway through the surge of electricity his body quivered, then fell back into the chair as the current ended."
Doctors find heartbeat twice
Two doctors filed out of the witness room to examine the body and pronounce Evans dead. The prison doctor, dressed in a blue surgical costume and tan loafers with tassels, placed a red stethoscope to the smock, turned and nodded, the natural signal for 'yes, he's dead'. But the nod meant he had found a heartbeat. The other doctor confirmed the gruesome discovery.
As Evans' chest rose and fell with "slow deep breathing", Harris said "spark and flame again accompanied the onset of the second charge, but this time, for a grim second, the veil slipped a fraction of an inch on the left side, giving the impression it was burning through and would fall away, exposing the face I'd noted was handsome minutes earlier". When the second charge subsided the doctors re-examined Evans and again it was clear they found a pulsating heart.
As onlookers demanded the "cruel and unusual punishment" be halted, a third electrical charge was administered to Evans's body. "Again Evans' head and leg smouldered," Harris recounted. "His fists, which clenched with the first jolt, remained locked on the chair's arms. I was convinced things were out of hand and was not sure the chair, for whatever reason, was capable of killing Evans. I seriously thought they would have to bring in a gun and shoot Evans in the chair."
However, this third charge proved fatal to Evans, in an execution lasting 14 minutes.
Other witnesses describe the scene
Another witness described how "sparks and flames erupted from the electrode tied to Mr Evans' left leg" and "a large puff of grayish smoke and sparks poured out from under the hood that covered Mr Evans' face", while "an overpowering stench of burnt flesh and clothing began pervading the witness room... the stench of burning flesh was nauseating". No explanation has ever been provided for the burning and smoking of Evans' body.
Evans, who was 33, became the first prisoner to be executed in Alabama following the reinstatement of the death penalty in the US in 1976.
According to a 2004 report published by Cambridge University Press, there were 34 botched executions between 1977 and 2001. Far from improving in recent years, there have been numerous further incidents, including in 2022 when Kenneth Smith spent 81 minutes strapped to a gurney as repeated attempts at lethal injections failed to kill him and last week, when Christa Pike also survived the lethal injection, leaving her critically ill in hospital with her prognosis unclear.
What did John Louis Evans III do?
Evans and an accomplice, Wayne Ritter, embarked on a two-month crime spree reportedly involving more than 30 armed robberies and nine kidnappings across seven states. On January 5, 1977, they robbed, shot and killed Edward Nassar, a pawn shop owner in Mobile, Alabama, with his two young daughters present.
Evans confessed upon their arrest, but prosecutors reportedly declined to accept his guilty plea as they sought the death penalty, which was only permitted following a jury conviction. During his first-degree murder trial, he stated he felt no remorse and would repeat his actions if given the opportunity. He even threatened jurors that should they fail to sentence him to death, he would escape and murder every one of them.
"I've been at it a long time," he said in court. "And if you don't come back with a death penalty, I'm going to get out and I'm going to do it again... I have no intention whatsoever of ever reforming in any way and I would rather die by electrocution than spend the rest of my life in a penitentiary."
Yet while behind bars he stated: "Any family I have hurt and particularly the little children who have suffered by what I have done, to them I say I am deeply, deeply sorry and hope that someday they will find it in their hearts to forgive me." He revealed that from the age of 14 "I have robbed and burglarised and stole and murdered and always was a few feet ahead of the law. Oh yes, I enjoyed it. It was fun while it lasted but look where it has brought me."
His fellow defendant Ritter similarly urged jurors during his own trial to hand down the death penalty, and instructed his legal team to abandon their eleventh-hour appeals while he sat on Death Row. He was executed on August 28, 1987.
