Christa Pike: Life, death and a botched execution in Tennessee
Christa Pike, a death row inmate in Tennessee, survived a botched execution attempt that left her in critical condition. The incident has sparked significant legal and ethical debate regarding the state's use of lethal injection protocols.
Why it matters
This rare and severe failure in the execution process highlights ongoing controversies surrounding the death penalty and the medical ethics of lethal injection.
T he only time in her 50 years of life that Christa Pike found herself cast in anything like a sympathetic light came on Wednesday evening, when the state of Tennessee botched her death by execution.
After two lethal doses of pentobarbital administered at the Riverbend Security Institution in Nashville, Pike was still breathing, heavily, and emitting snoring sounds. The execution was suspended. The prisoner was transferred to hospital.
Her legal team said on Thursday evening her condition has yet to be determined. Brain damage is considered a possibility, raising questions as to the future of a life that, from a distance, can read like an enduring, half-century nightmare.
“This event is the worst we’ve seen and unlike any other botched execution in the modern era,” Robin Maher, director of the Death Penalty Information Centre, said afterwards. “There is no precedent.”
Also covering this story
21 other newsrooms covered this event. We read each version separately.
US death row inmate receiving 'life-saving care' after botched execution
Christa Pike’s botched execution exposes the deep contradictions of a ‘painless’ state-imposed death
U.S. Supreme Court clears way for Tennessee woman's imminent execution
saving care' after botched execution
Christa Pike’s execution by lethal injection fails in Tennessee
Failed 'torturous' execution attempt on Christa Pike reignites death penalty debate
U.S. appeals court halts Tennessee execution of Christa Pike
Tennessee woman in hospital after ‘failed’ execution
Female US inmate in critical condition after botched execution
US woman alive and heard loudly snoring after unprecedented failure of lethal injection
US Supreme Court allows execution of Christa Pike to go ahead
Christa Pike survives two lethal injection doses as Tennessee execution fails
Tennessee governor halts executions after Christa Gail Pike survives lethal injection
US governor halts executions after woman survives lethal injection attempt
Tennessee halts executions after death row inmate Christa Pike survives hers
What happened in failed execution of Christa Pike - and what next?
Christa Pike: Tennessee suspends all executions after lethal injections fail
US Supreme Court sides with Tennessee to allow its first execution of a woman in 200 years
Christa Pike in hospital after execution 'failed'
‘It was a mess’: Tennessee fails to execute woman after 2 lethal injections - NBC News
Tennessee to execute woman for first time in two centuries
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in