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 / Updated By Tracy Connor 
 
 An Alabama execution team left a death-row inmate with more than a dozen puncture marks in his legs and groin and may have penetrated his bladder and femoral artery before the lethal injection was called off, the prisoner's attorney said Sunday. 
 
 "This was clearly a botched execution that can only be accurately described as torture," attorney Bernard Harcourt said in a statement after a doctor examined his client, convicted murderer and cancer survivor Doyle Lee Hamm, in prison. 
 
 State officials did not respond to a request for comment following the examination. 
 
 Last week, they said that after the execution started late Thursday because of last-minute appeals, the team wasn't sure it could find a good vein before the death warrant's midnight expiration. 
 
 Doyle Lee Hamm's execution was called off Thursday. Alabama Department of Corrections via AP 
 
 "I wouldn't necessarily characterize what we had tonight as a problem," Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn told reporters at the time. 
 
 Afterward, Harcourt went to federal court and convinced a judge to permit a doctor of his choosing to examine Hamm, who has been on death row for 30 years for the 1987 murder of a motel clerk. 
 
 The attorney said that while Hamm was strapped to the gurney, the IV team "simultaneously worked on both legs at the same time, probing his flesh and inserting needles." 
 
 "The IV personnel almost certainly punctured Doyle’s bladder, because he was urinating blood for the next day," he said. "They may have hit his femoral artery as well, because suddenly there was a lot of blood gushing out. There were multiple puncture wounds on the ankles, calf, and right groin area, around a dozen." 
 
 During the execution, Hamm "was lying there praying and hoping that they would succeed because of the pain, and collapsed when they took him off the gurney," Harcourt said. 
 
 In addition to the puncture marks, Hamm has bruising and swelling in his groin and pain from his abdomen to upper thigh, the lawyer said. He was still limping on Sunday. 
 
 All prisoners have a constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment, with the courts deciding if a particular execution is likely to violate that. 
 
 Before Thursday, Harcourt had warned that due to Hamm's history of drug abuse and his illnesses, it would be impossible to find good veins to deliver the deadly drugs. 
 
 A judge ruled the execution could proceed as long as the IV wasn't inserted in Hamm's arms. The U.S. Supreme Court, with three justices dissenting, then declined to stop the lethal injection. 
 
 Prison officials have given few details about what went on in the death chamber before Hamm got a reprieve. Dunn told reporters Thursday that he did not think the trouble the team had finding a vein would prevent the state from killing Hamm in the future. 
 
 "The only indication I have is that in their medical judgement it was more of a time issue, given the late hour," the commissioner said. 
 
 Harcourt wanted to examine the execution chamber and the notes prison workers took during the procedure, but the judge turned him down. 
 
 The judge did, however, order the Department of Corrections to preserve the notes and any other material from the execution try, including the clothing Hamm was wearing. 
 
 Hamm is not the first inmate to survive an execution attempt because of bad veins. 
 
 Three months ago, Ohio called off the execution of Alva Campbell after the medical team tried for 30 minutes to find an access point without success. 
 
 And in 2009, another Ohio inmate, Romell Broom, was spared after the execution worked for two hours to insert a needle. In appeals, he argues a second attempt would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. 

 This image provided by the Alabama Department of Corrections shows Doyle Lee Hamm, an inmate scheduled to be executed Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018 in Alabama. Alabama is set to execute Hamm, who argues his... (Associated Press) 
 
 This image provided by the Alabama Department of Corrections shows Doyle Lee Hamm, an inmate scheduled to be executed Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018 in Alabama. Alabama is set to execute Hamm, who argues his... (Associated Press) 
 
 MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Execution team members stuck an inmate repeatedly in the lower legs, ankles and groin in effort to find a usable vein before the state called off the lethal injection, according to a Friday court filing by the inmate's lawyer. 
 
 Attorney Bernard Harcourt said he is seeking more information about what happened during the attempted execution of his client, 61-year-old Doyle Lee Hamm, on Thursday night. 
 
 U.S. District Judge Karon Bowdre on Friday ordered a medical examination of Hamm and directed the state to maintain material related to the attempt. 
 
 Hamm, who has battled lymphoma, was to be executed Thursday for the 1987 slaying of motel clerk Patrick Cunningham. However, prison officials announced about 11:30 p.m. Thursday that they were halting the execution because medical staff did not think they could obtain "the appropriate venous access" before a midnight deadline. The announcement came about 2 ½ hours after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the execution to proceed. 
 
 The state prison commissioner said the execution was delayed because of a "time issue." 
 
 "I wouldn't necessarily characterize what we had tonight as a problem. ... The only indication I have is that in their medical judgment it was more of a time issue given the late hour," Commissioner Jeff Dunn said early Friday. 
 
 Harcourt said the execution was botched and that he had argued in court filings since July that lethal injection would be difficult and painful because Hamm's veins have been severely compromised by lymphoma, hepatitis and prior drug use. 
 
 Two execution team members, working on each side of Hamm's body, tried multiple times to insert the intravenous line on his left and right legs and ankles, and later turned him over and slapped the back of his legs to try to get a vein, Harcourt said. They then tried unsuccessfully to connect the line through his groin, he said. 
 
 "He's in great pain from yesterday evening, physically, from all of the attempts to access his veins in his lower extremities and in his groin," Harcourt told The Associated Press. 
 
 Early Friday, shortly after officials announced that the execution had been halted, Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn said the only obstacle to a successful execution was that the team lacked sufficient time. Dunn said he didn't know how long the medical team attempted to connect the line. The Alabama attorney general's office didn't respond to a request for comment. 
 
 Harcourt asked Bowdre to let the physician who conducted Hamm's medical exam to review the notes state officials took during the attempted execution. 
 
 He argued that the lapse of more than two hours before the state halted the execution was a sign that something was wrong. The past four executions in the state began about an hour after final permission was given from the U.S. Supreme Court. 
 
 Records from Georgia show that it typically takes that state less than 20 minutes to prepare an inmate for lethal injection, although there have been exceptions. In 2016, it took more than an hour to prepare a 72-year-old inmate when staff were unable to insert an IV in one arm and ended up connecting to a vein in his groin. 
 
 Alabama carries out executions by lethal injection unless an inmate requests the electric chair. 
 
 Hamm was convicted in the 1987 killing of motel clerk Patrick Cunningham. Cunningham was shot once in the head while working an overnight shift at a Cullman motel. Police said $410 was taken during the robbery. Hamm gave police a confession and he was convicted after two accomplices testified against him in exchange for being allowed to plead guilty to lesser offenses, according to court documents. 
 
 Executions were also scheduled to take place Thursday in Texas and Florida. 
 
 In Florida, Eric Scott Branch , 47, was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. Thursday after a lethal injection at Florida State Prison. Branch was convicted of the rape and fatal beating of University of West Florida student Susan Morris, 21. 
 
 In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott accepted the recommendation of the state's parole board and granted clemency for Thomas "Bart" Whitaker , on death row for masterminding the fatal shootings of his mother and brother at their suburban Houston home in 2003. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama and Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed to this report. 

 (Reuters) - Alabama’s aborted execution last week of an inmate with severely compromised veins led to more than 10 puncture wounds in the man from failed needle placements and left behind a bloodied death chamber, his lawyer said. 
 
 FILE PHOTO: Death row inmate Doyle Hamm appears in a booking photo provided by the Alabama Department of Corrections in Montgomery, Alabama, U.S., February 23, 2018. Alabama Department of Corrections/Handout via REUTERS 
 
 On Thursday, Alabama tried to execute by lethal injection convicted murderer Doyle Hamm, 61, who has spent more than half his life on death row. After about 2-1/2 hours of trying, the state called it off because of issues with Hamm’s veins it said could not be resolved before a death warrant expired at midnight. 
 
 “It was a gory, botched execution. They gave up when they could not find a vein,” Bernard Harcourt, a professor at the Columbia University Law School who is representing Hamm, said by email on Sunday. 
 
 The execution has come under federal court review, with a U.S. district judge calling for the state to preserve evidence, including the clothes Hamm was wearing. 
 
 Alabama Department of Corrections officials were not immediately available to respond to Harcourt’s comments. 
 
 States including Oklahoma and Arizona have also conducted botched executions that raised questions about death chamber protocols in the 31 U.S. states with the capital punishment. 
 
 “I wouldn’t necessarily characterize what we had tonight as a problem,” Jeff Dunn, Alabama Department of Corrections commissioner, told reporters shortly after the execution was called off. 
 
 There were two sets of medical personnel who tried to place a line in Hamm’s groin area or in an area between his knees and feet, Harcourt said, adding the inmate, who was examined by a doctor after the execution attempt, had at least 12 puncture wounds. 
 
 In court filings in the days before the planned execution, Hamm’s lawyers said he had terminal cancer and a history of intravenous drug use that had severely compromised his veins. 
 
 They said Alabama was rushing through a specialized execution protocol, increasing the chances of a flawed procedure. 
 
 The state responded at the time it knew what it was doing and could handle the lethal injection. It has not indicated if it will seek a new execution date. 
 
 The plan called for the insertion of intravenous catheters into Hamm’s leg or central vein, legal papers showed. 
 
 “Our case was that this would be tortuous and bloody and they wouldn’t succeed,” Harcourt said.
– When the execution of Doyle Lee Hamm was called off last week, the Alabama Department of Corrections said it was because it didn't have time to prepare the inmate before a midnight death warrant expired. "I wouldn't necessarily characterize what we had tonight as a problem," claimed prison commissioner Jeff Dunn early Friday, saying it had only been a "time issue." A lawyer for the 61-year-old inmate, however, says the state is actually talking about a "gory, botched execution" that made a bloody mess of the death chamber and the inmate himself, Reuters reports. "They gave up when they could not find a vein," says Columbia Law School professor Bernard Harcourt. He says two sets of medical personnel worked on Hamm at the same time, trying to find a usable vein in his legs or groin. The lawyer says an IV team almost certainly hit Hamm's bladder, and probably "hit his femoral artery as well, because suddenly there was a lot of blood gushing out," NBC News reports. "There were multiple puncture wounds on the ankles, calf, and right groin area, around a dozen." In recent court filings, Harcourt argued that terminal cancer, hepatitis, and prior drug use would make it difficult and painful to execute Hamm, who was sentenced to die for killing a motel clerk during a 1987 robbery, the AP reports. He says he warned that it would be "tortuous and bloody and they wouldn't succeed." The incident is being reviewed by a federal court and a judge has ordered the state to preserve evidence, including Hamm's bloodied clothes. Alabama hasn't said whether it will seek a new execution date.