9 Executions That Went Terribly Wrong (Florida Is on Pace for a Record in 2026)

On April 21, 1992, California strapped Robert Alton Harris into the gas chamber at San Quentin, unstrapped him when a federal judge issued a fourth stay, and put him back in the chair two hours later after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the lower courts to stop. It was the state's first execution in 25 years. As of mid-October 2026, Florida has carried out 17 executions this year and is on pace to break its own modern record of 19, set in 2025. Two weeks ago in Tennessee, Christa Pike survived two full doses of the lethal drug. History has seen this before. These are 9 American executions that went wrong, or went strange, and what each one changed: 1. Robert Alton Harris (California, 1992): four stays in one night and a last line borrowed from a movie. 2. Rickey Ray Rector (Arkansas, 1992): the brain-damaged man who saved his pecan pie for later, executed while Bill Clinton ran for president. 3. Thomas Grasso (Oklahoma, 1995): the killer who wanted to die, two governors, and the SpaghettiOs complaint. 4. Joseph Paul Jernigan (Texas, 1993): the executed man who became the Visible Human, and the victim almost nobody names. 5. Romell Broom (Ohio, 2009): two hours of needles, a failed execution, and eleven years of the state trying again. 6. Ronnie Lee Gardner (Utah, 2010): he chose the firing squad. His victim's family asked the state not to do it. 7. Michael Ross (Connecticut, 2005): the serial killer who fought his own lawyers to be executed. 8. Joseph Wood (Arizona, 2014): fifteen doses and nearly two hours. 9. Clayton Lockett (Oklahoma, 2014): the execution that was called off while he was still alive. For each case: the victims first, then the crime, the trial, the appeals and exactly what happened in the chamber, as reported by witnesses, courts and official investigations. Legal and news facts are current as of October 2026. If you find something we got wrong, tell us in the comments. In this format, the facts are the whole point. Contains discussion of murder, including the murders of children, and detailed descriptions of executions. No images of victims' bodies are shown. Viewer discretion advised. 0:00 Robert Alton Harris: Four Stays in One Night 6:15 Rickey Ray Rector: The Pie He Saved for Later 11:17 Thomas Grasso: I Did Not Get My SpaghettiOs 16:02 Joseph Paul Jernigan: The Executed Man Inside Every Anatomy Class 20:52 Romell Broom: He Survived His Own Execution 25:40 Ronnie Lee Gardner: The Firing Squad His Victim's Family Opposed 30:34 Michael Ross: The Killer Who Fought to Be Executed 35:42 Joseph Wood: Fifteen Doses, Nearly Two Hours 40:02 Clayton Lockett: The Execution Called Off Too Late #DeathRow #TrueCrime #BotchedExecution Public domain images via Wikimedia Commons and U.S. government archives. Creative Commons images from Wikimedia Commons and Flickr, used under CC BY 2.0, CC BY 3.0, CC BY 4.0, CC BY-SA 2.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 4.0, CC0. Titles, authors and links for every image are available on request in the comments. Some editorial photographs from news coverage, used for commentary and reporting.