Reporter Michael Graczyk followed almost 500 executions of prisoners carried out in the American state of Texas and did not stop even after retiring from the AP (Associated Press) agency in 2018.
He recalls two cases in which the needles came out and needed to be reinserted for the execution to be completed, but never a case in which the inmate survived.
That's what happened this week in Tennessee, when 50-year-old Christa Pike continued breathing and snoring loudly after two doses of pentobarbital, the barbiturate used in the state's lethal injection protocol.
Graczyk, 76, says he wasn't completely surprised to hear about the case and, in fact, had already thought about the possibility during his decades-long career as a journalist in Texas.
"For me, it was just a matter of time," he told BBC News.
According to the Associated Press, Tennessee's execution protocol calls for a second set of syringes with pentobarbital if the person does not die from the first. But the protocol does not say what to do if the prisoner is still alive after that.
Governor Bill Lee suspended executions in the state after the failure on the night of September 30 and ordered an independent review of the procedures.
This Saturday (3), the head of the Tennessee prison system was removed from office after the failed execution.
Botched executions have come under increased scrutiny in the last decade, since shortages of the drugs used led some states to change the formula or obtain the substances from more dubious sources. Some even resumed execution by firing squad as an alternative.
Pike is now in a hospital, where he is receiving "life-saving care," according to his lawyer.
It is not uncommon for an execution by lethal injection to go wrong. This is the most used method of capital punishment in the 27 American states where it is legal.
The Death Penalty Information Center, a think tank that is neither for nor against the death penalty, describes an unsuccessful execution as one with "unexpected problems or delays that caused, at least possibly, unnecessary suffering to the inmate, or that reflect serious incompetence on the part of the executioner."
The organization has assembled a list of 64 botched executions since 1982, of which 51 were by lethal injection. In at least seven of these cases, executions were halted because the intravenous line could not be inserted.
But Graczyk has never seen an execution fail after the injection was administered.
"That's never happened here," Graczyk said, referring to Texas.
Graczyk, who covered a wide range of topics for the AP during his 46 years at the agency, considers his frequent presence at executions an important part of the job.
"Of all the powers that the state or federal government has over us, none is greater than the power to take our lives," he said.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, there have been 1,683 executions in the United States since 1976, the year the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty.
Texas carried out by far the most of any state: 602 executions. In 1982, it became the first state to use lethal injection to execute people.
"I've always thought it's important for someone who has no interest in the outcome of a case to be there, see the law being followed and make sure it's done the right way," Graczyk said.
"May someone be there to see and tell others: this is what I saw, this is what happened."
Although he is retired, he still freelances for the AP, covering executions in his home state.
He feels a special responsibility not to let the inmates' victims be forgotten in his coverage, and is particularly disheartened when he writes a story about an execution that doesn't make big news.
"I feel sorry for the victims in the case," he said. "They're the forgotten people. They always have been."
"Today, all the attention is on prey in Tennessee," he said. "No one sheds tears for the victim except the victim's closest family... And I understand that this is the business we work in, but that doesn't mean it's right."
Pike's victim was Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old Florida native who loved roller skating, smiling and helping others, according to descriptions given by friends and family.
Slemmer was tortured and killed by Pike, then 18, and her boyfriend at the time, Tadaryl Shipp, after the three met at a job training camp.
Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, was in Tennessee on September 30 for the attempted execution. She later told NBC News that "it was a mess."
Texas, where Graczyk lives and works, does not allow observers in the execution chamber while the IV is inserted, he said.
"So when we enter the chamber, the inmate is already connected."
In a lethal injection execution, the IV is typically inserted into the crook of the person's arm, Graczyk said. But if that didn't work, sometimes the needle was inserted into the back of the hand, leg, neck, or other points.
In successful executions, according to Graczyk, inmates become "visibly unconscious after just a few seconds." They are generally declared dead 20 to 40 minutes after the fatal dose, he said.
He still remembers the death of Jonathan Nobles, executed by lethal injection in Texas in 1998. Nobles had received the sentence after being convicted of the brutal stabbing murder of two women in Austin in 1986: Kelley Fraquhar and Mitzi Johnson-Nalley.
Nobles' last words were the song Silent Night.
"He gets to 'Round yon virgin', the third verse of the song in English, and stops talking," Graczyk told BBC News. "That's how long it took for the medicine to take effect, until he was no longer conscious."
This scene has followed Graczyk for almost 30 years.
"To this day, when I'm in church at Christmas, and the choir is singing Silent Night, and the whole congregation joins in the singing, and everyone is, you know, in the spirit and the joy of the season, and I think about that performance... I'm sure I'm the only one in the congregation having that kind of memory."
When people learn about his career covering executions, he says, they tend to be curious.
"Most people don't get the chance to see someone die," he said.
But when asked about what he witnessed, he responds that this is far from everything he has done in his life.
