The family of executed Alabama inmate Joe Nathan James Jr. is suing Gov. Kay Ivey and other state officials, claiming James suffered excessive pain in the hours before his execution and was unconscious before he was put to death.

“Mr. James had planned, as his final words, to apologize to his mother and daughters, to apologize to the victim’s family, and to pray the shahada, the Muslim profession of faith,” the lawsuit states.

Instead, not once during the 18 minutes of the execution did Joe James open his eyes or respond to the standard consciousness check that consists of a correctional officer calling his name, flicking his eyelid, or pinching his arm.

“Alabama must own up to its wrongs,” said Joe James’ brother Hakim James in a statement through his attorney. “This lawsuit is not about attacking the death penalty or seeking pity for my brother. It is simply a demand that Alabama officials recognize the humanity of the people the State executes.”

The lawsuit was filed by Hakim James as the representative of his brother’s estate against Ivey, Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm, William C. Holman Correctional Facility warden Terry Raybon, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, and six unnamed prison system workers. Three are described as people who work on the prison’s team that sets up intravenous lines for the three-drug lethal injections. The other three are workers on the execution team.

The state has never released the names of those workers, and fought in federal court to keep their names secret.

The federal lawsuit, filed Wednesday, claims Alabama imposed “cruel and unusual punishment” when it executed Joe James last summer. It also claims the state—who “shrouds its execution procedures in secrecy”—has kept information related to Joe James’ death in the exclusive hands of the prison system.

James was 50 years old at the time of his execution, which happened at Alabama’s William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore on July 28, 2022. He was put to death for the 1994 slaying of his ex-girlfriend, Faith Hall.

James, eyes closed and without speaking, died after correctional officials spent nearly three hours trying to start an intravenous line for the lethal drugs to be administered. The seeming lack of consciousness is a point of contention about what happened that night.

When asked if James was conscious at the start of the procedure, a prison spokesperson told media, “He was not sedated.”

Wednesday’s lawsuit claims the IV team used midazolam—the first drug used in the lethal injection protocol to render an inmate unconscious—as a sedative during their attempts to establish an IV. It claims the team didn’t set up the two lines required for an IV until 9:02 p.m., more than three hours past the scheduled execution time of 6 p.m.

The state has denied using intramuscular sedation during Joe James’, or any other, execution.

Following his execution, a private autopsy was performed, but the doctor performing the procedure and the doctor observing it disagreed as to if there were signs of abuse from the state. The observing doctor said he saw evidence of a cutdown procedure—or a way some medical professionals cut into a person’s arm to find a vein. The doctor performing the autopsy said he didn’t think that happened.

In November, the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences released the official autopsy for Joe James and noted no evidence of a cutdown procedure. It didn’t specifically cite the number of puncture wounds.

The lawsuit says Joe James suffered “excessive pain during his prolonged execution and deprived him of the right to be conscious and speak his final words before the administration of the lethal drugs.”

The suit says: “(Terry) Raybon and the Execution Team knew that Mr. James was unconscious and unable to say his last words. (Terry) Raybon held the microphone to Mr. James’s lips only momentarily, without waiting to see if he would respond. This would make no sense if Mr. James had been conscious.”

Wednesday’s lawsuit echoes claims from national organizations who say Joe James’ execution was the longest recorded lethal injection in American history. “The conclusion that (the state) violated Mr. James’s rights during his execution is further bolstered by Alabama’s history of botched executions, which resulted from a poorly implemented protocol and inadequately trained staff,” says the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims the prison system contacted Ivey while workers were trying to start Joe James’ IV on the night of his execution, and she “demanded that the execution proceed and failed to intervene to call off the execution after it became clear that the execution was going awry, that Mr. James had sustained multiple injuries, and that Mr. James had been rendered unconscious.” It continues that Raybon, the warden, failed to maintain “close observation” of the execution process and ignored signs that Joe James was in pain.

The lawsuit also states Marshall knew the problems happening with placing the IV line that night, and too failed to step in. Everyone involved “knew or should have known they were superadding terror, pain, and/or disgrace to Mr. James’s death sentence by attempting to establish IV access for over three hours” and when he was “forcibly sedated.”

The lawsuit claims Alabama is the only state that “has had to halt an execution in progress since 2017″ and “is fully aware of the serious problems in its execution procedures.”

Late last year, Ivey announced a temporary halt on executions in Alabama while the state conducted an internal review into its own lethal injection process. That review ended in February, with no public report or details related. The state said only that the prison system has “ordered and obtained new equipment” for future executions.

Hakim James is seeking compensatory damages for the “physical and psychological pain and suffering” his brother experienced and for “their rendering him unresponsive during his final opportunity to make peace with his fate.”

The lawsuit also mentions the two executions Alabama attempted since Joe James’ death. Those two men, Alan Miller and Kenneth Smith, both survived after the state couldn’t set up IV lines before the mens’ execution warrants expired at midnight on their respective execution dates.

Arnold & Porter, a Washington D.C. based-law firm, is representing Hakim James. One of the estate’s lawyers, Anand Agneshwar, said he filed the lawsuit for the James family to hold Alabama accountable. “Our complaint identifies serious deficiencies in Alabama’s execution process, which resulted in the longest lethal injection execution in U.S. history, as well as a series of other botched executions,” he said.

“At a minimum, Alabama needs to follow the example of other states and provide public transparency into its processes and the investigation that it recently conducted.”

“Our motive in bringing this case is to ensure the State of Alabama is held accountable for subjecting Mr. James to three hours of agony and to prevent prisoners from enduring such prolonged and unnecessary pain in the future.”

Hakim James said, through a press release from his attorney: “Alabama has never admitted to the pain it caused Joe and our family. Instead, prison officials have caused terrible suffering to two more men, just like they did to Joe. State officials are like the victim in a horror movie, refusing to listen to cries of warning. They keep trying to execute people in the same painful way, even though they know it will go horribly wrong.”