All PRISONERS Who Survived Their Execution – What Happens If You Survive Execution on Death Row?

On May 3rd, 1946, inmate Willie Francis felt 2,000 volts of electricity surge through his body during his execution in the electric chair. Miraculously, he survived. But what happened next will leave you speechless. Here are 10 stories of inmates who, against all odds, survived their own execution and the shocking events that followed. Welcome to Criminal Records.

Number 10: Kenneth Smith and the Controversy

Convicted killer Kenneth Smith requested to die by having pure nitrogen pumped into his lungs, but this type of execution has never been attempted in the world. On November 17th, 2022, Kenneth Smith, a hitman from the US, was brought to the execution chamber despite one of the highest courts in the country ordering a delay.

In the 1980s, Smith was hired by preacher Charles Sennett Sr. to end the life of his wife, Elizabeth Sennett. Charles, overwhelmed by a massive debt, planned her death with the intention of collecting life insurance. He paid Smith and another man, John Forrest Parker, $1,000 each for the job. However, the plan didn’t go as expected, leading to Smith’s capture and death sentence.

After spending 33 years on death row, a date was set for his execution. But when the time came, the three-person team in charge of administering the lethal injection failed to find an intravenous line. They repeatedly punctured his arms while he screamed and begged them to stop. In a desperate attempt, they even punctured his muscle, causing excruciating pain.

In his own words, Smith recounted: “When they couldn’t find a suitable vein, they ordered the guards to tilt the gurney back so that my feet pointed to the ceiling and my head hung down toward the floor like in an inverted crucifixion. Their masks were covered in my blood, and they eventually punctured my clavicle in an attempt to insert a central intravenous line into the subclavian artery.”

After 4 hours of failed attempts, they finally returned him to his cell, complying with the court order to halt the execution. His lawyers described the experience as disturbing and traumatic, something most would agree with. But the worst was yet to come.

On August 26th, 2023, the state of Alabama decided that Smith would be executed by nitrogen hypoxia, a method never before used in the US. Authorities believed that after having escaped death so many times, this was the only way to end his life. In this procedure, Smith would simply inhale the gas until he lost consciousness and died.

On January 25th, 2024, Kenneth Smith’s execution was carried out. Smith, 58, made a final statement through a mask which muffled his words: “Tonight, Alabama made humanity take a step back,” said Smith. “I leave with love, peace, and light. I love you all, thank you for supporting me.”

Witnesses saw him dressed in his prison uniform, covered with a white sheet up to his chest. He was strapped to the gurney in two places with a strap around his stomach and another across his chest. During the execution, he violently shook on the gurney, and the process lasted about 25 minutes. After having cheated death once, this time there was no escape.

Number 9: Romell Broom

On September 15th, 2009, convicted rapist and murderer Romell Broom was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in the state of Ohio. However, the executioners faced issues that made it impossible to carry out that day.

Broom was born on June 4th, 1956, in Michigan and moved to Ohio with his mother at the age of five. Over time, he became involved with bad influences that shaped the course of his life. His criminal history began in 1974 with car thefts on highways but soon escalated to more serious crimes, including rape and murder. The crime that led him to death row was the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Tryna Middleton, a young woman who was walking home with her friends after a football game in East Cleveland, Ohio.

After being identified through DNA evidence, he was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to death by lethal injection. However, his execution turned into an unexpected struggle. For over 2 hours, the executioners unsuccessfully attempted to find a suitable vein to administer the lethal drugs. During the process, Broom suffered extreme pain from the repeated punctures in his arms.

Eventually, the state of Ohio intervened and halted the execution. Initially, it was rescheduled for a week later, but over time, his lawyers succeeded in delaying it for years. Broom even wrote a book about his traumatic experience. Although a new execution date was set for 2022, it never took place.

On December 20th, 2020, Romell Broom passed away due to complications from COVID-19. While he ultimately died on death row, it is undeniable that he managed to evade his execution and live far longer than the state had originally planned.

Number 8: William Duell

There’s a reason why hanging was discontinued as a method of execution. In the past, several people survived, including a young man named William Duell.

Duell was a minor when he was convicted as an accomplice in the attack on Sarah Griffin in England. On November 24th, 1740, he was hanged at Tyburn along with four other convicts. His body was left hanging for about 20 minutes, and after being declared dead, he was lowered and taken to an anatomy theater for dissection.

However, after his clothes were removed and he was placed on the table, one of the attendants noticed something strange. Duell was breathing slowly. Over the hours, his breathing grew faster until he managed to sit up and speak. Unfortunately for him, the doctors reported to the authorities, and that very night he was returned to prison.

It was discovered that due to the pressure of the rope on his neck, he had suffered a bout of delirium, preventing him from remembering his execution. The next day, he had fully recovered. The news spread quickly, and the public celebrated his unexpected survival. He was eventually pardoned due to his mental state, and his sentence was commuted to penal transportation, meaning his exile to North America. He spent the rest of his life in Boston, where he is said to have died around 1805.

Number 7: John Lee

On February 23rd, 1885, there were three failed attempts to execute John Lee by hanging, all of them unsuccessful. John Lee was born in England on August 15th, 1864. At the age of 21, he was convicted of ending the life of his employer, Emma Keyse, in her own home. The only strong evidence against him was the fact that he was the only man present in the house at the time of the crime, along with his criminal history and some cuts on his arm.

Despite Lee insisting on his innocence, he was sentenced to hang. On the day of the execution, he was led to the gallows with the rope tightened around his neck and a sack covering his head. However, when the executioner pulled the lever to open the trapdoor, nothing happened. He tried several times, but the trapdoor simply wouldn’t open.

It was an embarrassing moment for everyone present, and the coroner decided to suspend the execution. Lee was returned to his cell while the mechanism was tested again. It worked perfectly with each attempt, but as soon as Lee was placed on the trapdoor, it failed again.

Throughout the entire process, Lee remained calm, claiming that his faith in God would save him. What happened next? A judge commuted his sentence to life imprisonment. Years later, after several appeals and new evidence showing that he might not have been the only man in the house the night of the crime, his innocence was determined, and he was released in 1907.

What happened to him afterward remains a mystery. Some versions say he died in a mental asylum in Tavistock during World War II, while others claim he moved to the United States where he became a speaker and passed away in Milwaukee in 2009. Regardless of the truth, John Lee will always be remembered as the man who couldn’t be hanged.

Number 6: Anne Greene

On December 14th, 1650, Anne Greene, a domestic servant in England, was executed by hanging after being found guilty of infanticide. However, her story has been told for centuries due to its incredible outcome.

Born in 1628, Anne worked in the house of Sir Thomas Read, a Justice of the Peace living in Oxfordshire. During her time there, she was seduced by her employer’s grandson, Geoffrey Read, who left her pregnant. At 17 weeks, Anne had a miscarriage. Fearing retaliation, she tried to hide the remains, but they were discovered, leading to her being accused of ending the infant’s life.

She was sentenced to hang and executed at the famous Oxford Castle. Her body remained hanging for 30 minutes before being lowered, placed in a coffin, and handed over to the doctors at the University of Oxford for dissection.

What is shocking is that Anne never died. For 24 hours, she was without food, water, and with little oxygen, until just before the doctors began to dissect her body, one of them noticed she still had a pulse. Imagine their surprise when they saw Anne slightly move her body! Immediately, he and other doctors began resuscitating her, administering medications until she could finally speak and move on her own.

Three days later, Sir Thomas Read passed away, leaving no authority to revoke her pardon. However, her case caused a disturbance with a group of people demanding that she be executed again. Fortunately, no one listened to them, and Anne was released. Many saw her story as divine intervention, a miracle that saved her from death. Eventually, Anne lived a peaceful life, married, had three children, and died in 1659.

Number 5: Willie Francis

We’ve seen cases of people who survived lethal injection, but what about an execution in the electric chair? That seems impossible. However, in 1946, a young African-American named Willie Francis survived an attempt at execution in the electric chair, an event that remains one of the greatest anomalies in the history of the death penalty in the United States.

Two years earlier, in 1944, a pharmacist from St. Martinville, Louisiana named Andrew Thomas was found dead after receiving multiple gunshots. It was said that Thomas had been abusing young people in the area, leading many to believe that Willie Francis might have been one of his victims. For 9 months, the case remained unsolved until, in August 1945, Willie, only 16 years old, was arrested as the primary suspect.

According to the police, he was found with Thomas’s wallet, but no evidence ever proved this. Moreover, the weapon used in the crime belonged to the county sheriff’s assistant, August Fuselier, which raised even more doubts about Willie’s guilt. Despite the lack of concrete evidence, he was pressured into signing two written confessions, likely obtained under coercion.

His trial was a sham. The defense attorneys didn’t call any witnesses or raise objections, and within just two days, an all-white jury found him guilty and sentenced him to death. On May 3rd, 1946, Willie was taken to the electric chair. However, the execution failed. The portable electric chair had been properly installed by a prison guard who was drunk, preventing the current from killing him. Against all odds, Willie Francis survived.

After this incident, a lawyer named Bertrand DeBlanc took on his case and appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that not only had the execution been inhumane, but there were also serious irregularities in the trial. Among them, key evidence such as the murder weapon and Andrew Thomas’s body had disappeared days before the trial.

Despite the evidence that the judicial process had been riddled with errors, the Supreme Court rejected the appeal. On May 9th, 1947, one year after his first attempted execution, Willie Francis was sent back to the electric chair. This time, there were no mistakes. His last words were directed at a reporter: “I’m going to meet the Lord with my Sunday pants and my Sunday heart.” Even today, his case serves as a reminder of the flaws in the justice system and the brutality of the death penalty.

Number 4: Alan Eugene Miller

By now, the state of Alabama might deserve to be banned from carrying out executions by lethal injection because it seems they never manage to get it right. In the case of Alan Eugene Miller, not only did they fail to administer the lethal drugs, but they almost killed him due to the numerous injuries inflicted on his body during the failed execution attempt.

On September 22nd, 2022, Miller was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection for the murders of Lee Holdbrooks, Christopher Scott Yancy, and Terry Jarvis, committed in 1999 during a delusional episode. However, when it came time for his execution, prison officials encountered serious difficulties locating a suitable vein to insert the intravenous line.

For an hour and a half, the executioners tried unsuccessfully to find venous access, repeatedly piercing his arms, hands, and feet. Desperate, they began inserting needles into various parts of his body with no success. Miller remained conscious throughout the procedure, feeling each puncture and the pain it caused.

After nearly 2 hours of failed attempts, they strapped him tightly to the gurney with a chest strap and tilted him upright. With his limbs bleeding, the executioners finally left the execution chamber, leaving Miller tied up, alone, and severely injured. 30 minutes later, he was removed from the gurney, his wounds were treated, and he was returned to his cell. Against all odds, Alan Eugene Miller had survived his execution.

What happened next? His lawyers continued to fight for a change in his method of execution, arguing that Alabama had demonstrated its inability to carry out lethal injections effectively. His case was the third in four years in which the state of Alabama failed in an execution, sparking a strong debate over lethal injection as a method of capital punishment. Finally, Alan Eugene Miller was executed on September 26th, 2024, by hypoxia through nitrogen deprivation.

Number 3: John Smith

If there were a record for the most executions survived by a single person, that record would belong to John Smith. Born in 1661, Smith was a thief and robber in London. However, before taking this criminal path, he served in the Navy as a commercial sailor and later in the war as a soldier until he was discharged after the famous Battle of Vigo Bay.

Shortly afterward, he enlisted as a soldier and began associating with bad company, which ultimately led him to a life of crime. On December 5th, 1705, he was found guilty of two charges and sentenced to death. At first, Smith didn’t seem too worried, but when the time for the execution came, his family caused a great uproar trying to lessen Smith’s suffering.

During the execution process, he was hanged for about 15 minutes without dying, so he was lowered and taken to a nearby house to recover. On February 20th, 1706, John was released due to the traumatic experience he suffered from the failed execution. However, this was just the first of many surprises in Smith’s life.

After being freed, he returned to his old habits of theft, and less than 6 months later, he was arrested again for the same crime. Despite having been previously convicted, he managed to evade harsher punishment due to the complexity of his case. Clearly, Smith did not deserve the mercy granted to him, and he was arrested for the third time for robbery.

This time, it seemed that execution was inevitable, but just before his trial, the prosecutor died, leaving him free once again. People with such incredible luck are few, and the most surprising thing is that Smith’s luck had not yet run out.

On May 17th, 1727, at the age of 66, John Smith was arrested for attempting to steal a lock with a friend. While his friend managed to escape, Smith was captured and brought before the authorities. It was discovered that he was trying to break into a warehouse, which earned him his third conviction. He was sentenced to be transported as a prisoner to Virginia, United States.

Smith requested that physical punishments be imposed on him, but the mayor rejected his request. Eventually, he was sent far from London, leaving his family behind. It is uncertain what happened to Smith after his relocation, but it is hoped that his luck accompanied him until the end of his life.

Number 2: Joseph Samuel

In 1795, a German man named Joseph Samuel was sentenced to be transported as a prisoner to England. However, what he did next was completely unthinkable, leading him directly to the death penalty, though fate had other plans for him.

At the time, Britain had a penal settlement in Sydney, and Samuel, along with other prisoners, managed to escape from that settlement and return to England. After his escape, they robbed the house of a wealthy woman, and during the robbery, they killed the police officer who was guarding the house. Since the woman was wealthy and an officer had been killed, the authorities launched an intense manhunt to capture Samuel and his gang.

During the trial, the woman specifically identified Samuel as one of the culprits. Samuel confessed to the robbery but denied having killed the officer. However, since he was the only one identified, he was sentenced to death by hanging, while the others were released due to a lack of evidence.

On September 26th, 1803, Samuel, along with other prisoners, was hanged. The ropes used for the execution were strong enough to support up to 450 kg, meaning they were more than capable of hanging a human. While the other prisoners died from strangulation, Samuel’s rope broke, and he fell to the ground. This left everyone stunned.

The executioner quickly prepared another rope, also capable of supporting 450 kg, and placed it around Samuel’s neck. He raised him again, but immediately after the cart beneath his feet was removed, the rope loosened, and Samuel fell to the ground once more. The executioner was confused, knowing he had adjusted the rope correctly. Samuel suffered an ankle sprain from the falls and was in great pain.

Once again, the executioner prepared a new rope, ordered the cart to lift him up, and carefully adjusted the rope. This time, when the cart moved away, the rope failed for the third time, leaving Samuel falling to the ground again.

The crowd began to cheer, calling for Samuel’s release, and the situation grew violent. The chief of police ordered that the execution be halted until the governor’s arrival. When the governor arrived at the scene and reviewed the ropes, which showed no signs of being cut, and saw that the other prisoners had died with the same ropes, he agreed with the crowd that this was likely a sign from God that Joseph Samuel had not committed a crime worthy of execution. As a result, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

Number 1: Wenceslao Moguel

It’s only fitting to close this video with a case that will leave you on the edge of your seat. Born on November 1st, 1896, Wenceslao Moguel was a Mexican soldier under the command of General Francisco Villa. However, after the start of the Mexican Revolution, Wenceslao was captured and sentenced to death by firing squad.

Being executed by firing squad is one of the most brutal forms of execution a condemned person can face, but somehow, Wenceslao survived. During that execution, he was shot between eight and nine times in his body, and as a final measure, they shot him point-blank in the head to ensure his death.

But after everything was over, Wenceslao realized that he was still alive, although he decided to play dead to avoid being killed again. When his body was taken down, Wenceslao managed to crawl through the night to the Church of Santiago Apostol, which was three blocks away. A member of the church found him and took him to his home where he recovered.

Though permanently scarred and disfigured, Wenceslao survived that execution. This case highlights how shocking human error can be and the tragedy behind the death penalty.