'Can you believe this?': Arizona death row inmate's final words to witnesses as officials struggled for an HOUR to find a vein - before inserting a catheter to deliver lethal injection dose that killed him

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An Arizona death row inmate used his final words to ask witnesses 'can you believe this?' as bungling officials struggled to find a vein for nearly an hour.

Murray Hooper, 76, was convicted of murdering two people in 1980 and was given the lethal injection at the state prison.

But officials struggled to insert the IV used to administer the drug, with Hooper asking 'what are we waiting on?' before saying to witnesses 'I can't believe this' and shaking his head.

Eventually, they inserted a catheter into his femoral vein near his groin to complete the execution – being told that it would 'hurt less'.

Arizona did not carry out the death penalty for nearly eight years after criticism that a 2014 execution was botched and because of difficulties obtaining execution drugs.

No other executions are currently scheduled in Arizona, where 110 people are on death row.

The bungled injection is the third in just two days across the nation, with executions in Texas and Alabama all going wrong.

Murray Hooper, 76, was convicted of murdering two people in 1980 and was given the lethal injection at the state prison. He shook his head and said 'I can't believe this' as officials struggled to inject him

Arizona did not carry out the death penalty for nearly eight years after criticism that a 2014 execution was botched and because of difficulties obtaining execution drugs

Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm (pictured) said during a press conference after the execution was called off that he could not confirm how many times he had been punctured

Stephen Barbee, 55, was executed in Texas yesterday, with officials having difficulty finding usable veins in his neck and arms – taking two hours.

He was convicted of murdering Lisa Underwood, 34, and her son Jayden, in February 2005 but did not mention his victims in his final words.

Alabama has seen three executions in a row botched, with Alan Miller being jabbed for 90-minutes by officials who could not establish an IV line.

In July they took three hours to execute Joe James Jr behind closed doors – claiming nothing 'out of the ordinary' occurred.

It was likened to the case of Doyle Lee Hamm in February 2018, when Hamm survived the attempted execution and claimed that when officials were trying to establish an IV line, they stabbed him 12 times.

Six were in his groin, and others punctured his bladder and penetrated his femoral artery.

Yesterday officials called off Kenneth Smith's execution late last night after he was jabbed with needs for an hour as they attempted to set an intravenous line.

Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said during a press conference after the execution was called off that he could not confirm how many times he had been punctured.

Alabama has seen three executions in a row botched, with Alan Miller (right) being jabbed for 90-minutes by officials who could not establish an IV line. Stephen Barbee, 55, (left)  was executed in Texas yesterday, with officials having difficulty finding usable veins in his neck and arms – taking two hours.

The executions come despite a decline in support over recent years for the death penalty, with six in 10 Americans favoring the death penalty

Alan Eugene Miller is seen being led away from the Pelham City Jail in Alabama on August 5, 1999. Miller was scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on September 22, 2022 after a last minute decision by the Supreme Court cleared the way

Officials decided that they did not have enough time to complete the procedure before the death warrant expired at midnight.

Reprieve US director Maya Foa said: 'No matter how many executions its officials catastrophically mishandle, Alabama appears determined to persist with lethal injection.

'Alan Miller, Joe James and Doyle Lee Hamm were all subjected to prolonged suffering, but the state pressed ahead with Kenneth Smith's execution regardless, using the same broken procedure.

'Being prepared for execution, strapped to a gurney and stabbed again and again with needles as prison officials try and fail to kill you is torture. 

'It is the definition of "cruel and unusual punishment," and even supporters of the death penalty must recognize that it is time for Alabama to think again.'

Kenneth Eugene Smith (left) was convicted in a 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of preacher's wife Elizabeth Sennett (right). Smith, 57, had been scheduled to receive a lethal injection at a south Alabama prison on Thursday before it was abandoned at the last minute

Stephen Barbee, who killed Lisa Underwood, his pregnant ex-girlfriend and her seven-year-old son, Jayden, has admitted suffocating both victims

'The recent spate of disastrous lethal injection executions has shown that whatever the drug, whatever the protocol, condemned prisoners often spend their final hours in agonizing pain and distress.

'With each gruesome scene in the death chamber, we are witnessing the consequences of persisting with a broken method of execution, in real-time.'

The executions come despite a decline in support over recent years for the death penalty, with six in 10 Americans favoring the death penalty.

While a majority continue to express support for the death penalty, the share had declined steadily since the 1990s, when nearly three-quarters were in favor.

Barbee was the fifth inmate put to death this year in Texas and was the last inmate scheduled for execution this year in the state.

So far, 15 people, including Barbee, have been executed across the U.S. in 2022, all by lethal injection.

This year’s total number of U.S. executions is already higher than last year’s 11, which was the lowest in more than three decades.