A man executed in Alabama heaved and coughed for 13 minutes before dying, raising ire over a drug critics have said should be banned.  

45-year-old death row inmate Ronald Smith was executed in Alabama by lethal injection using the controversial sedative midazolam.

Critics have said the drug should be banned because it does not render a person sufficiently unconscious.

The valium-like drug has been used in executions in Ohio, Oklahoma, and Arizona that took longer than usual or were botched.

In some instances, witnesses said inmates twisted on gurneys before dying.

Smith was also seen moving his lips after the drugs were administered in the execution.

He was convicted of murdering a store clerk in 1994.

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