Tennessee halts executions after death row inmate Christa Pike survives hers
Tennessee has suspended all executions after a botched attempt to execute death row inmate Christa Pike, who survived two lethal injection attempts. Pike remains in critical condition, and her legal team is now petitioning for a commuted sentence.
Why it matters
The incident has reignited the national debate over the ethics and efficacy of lethal injection as a method of capital punishment.
Figure caption, What we know about Christa Pike’s condition after failed execution
Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike is in "critical condition, receiving life-saving care" at hospital, after surviving two lethal injection attempts, leading the state's governor to halt all executions for the year.
"We don't have a sense of her prognosis or much update on her health at the moment," her lawyer Randy Spivey told reporters on Thursday. "But we do know that she is alive right now."
Her lawyers are now asking for her sentence to be commuted. Pike, 50, was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of Colleen Slemmer.
She was injected with two lethal doses of pentobarbital on Wednesday but remained alive, her lawyers said. She was then sent to hospital in an ambulance.
Figure caption, Watch: Witnesses recount Christa Pike's failed execution attempt
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19 other newsrooms covered this event. We read each version separately.
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