By
The Associated Press
An Alabama state inmate whose lethal injection was stopped because medical personnel could not find a suitable vein to insert the needle has died of natural causes nearly four years later, his attorney said Monday.
Doyle Lee Hamm, who was convicted of the murder of a motel employee in 1987, died at age 64 of natural causes on death row, said his attorney, Bernard Harcourt.
Alabama authorities
postponed his execution
in February 2018 because prison officials could not find a suitable vein into which to connect his IV to administer the lethal drug mixture.
Doyle Lee Hamm in an image provided by the Alabama Department of Corrections.
Hamm and the state reached an agreement the following month that made it impossible to retry his execution, but he
remained on death row
at Holman Prison due to his death sentence, Harcourt explained.
The inmate had suffered from aggressive lymphatic cancer for years, the lawyer explained.
The prison warden called Hamm's brother to inform him of his death on Sunday morning.
"Doyle will be remembered for his generous and forgiving spirit and his ability to always stay positive even in the face of the most dire adversities. He will be missed by his friends and family," Harcourt wrote in a tribute.
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Neither the Department of Corrections nor the state attorney general's office immediately responded to emails from the AP seeking information about Hamm's death.
Hamm was convicted of the murder of Patrick Cunningham, who was shot in the head while working a night shift at a Cullman motel.
Police said $ 410 was stolen during a robbery.
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The inmate
confessed
to the police and was convicted after two accomplices testified against him in exchange for being able to plead guilty to minor offenses, according to court documents.
Diagnosed in 2014 with B-cell lymphoma, Hamm argued before the scheduled execution that the cancer had progressed, while the state said he was in remission.
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In the days leading up to his execution, state prison officials told courts they planned to connect the IV
below the knee
, after detecting in a federal judge-ordered medical check that he did not have easily usable veins in his limbs. superiors.
The state had expressed confidence that Hamm had veins that could serve, but prison officials were unable to find a suitable one on the day he was to receive the lethal injection.
The United States Supreme Court had allowed the execution to take place, but the state eventually suspended it due to this problem.
