Iam a recently retired pediatric surgeon who spent 30 years caring for children with severe injuries, burns and surgical emergencies. Back in 1992, I cared for a child who was seriously injured by a man who had also committed two murders in a violent rampage. I testified against this man at his capital murder trial, and he was sentenced to death. This trial was a life-changing event for me, and it led me on a quest to understand how and why people are executed in the United States.

This quest eventually led me to see firsthand what it looks like when an execution does not go as planned. I examined Romell Broom in 2009 after the state attempted – and ultimately failed – to execute him by lethal injection. He was stuck with needles 18 times over two hours before the governor called off hi

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