Amnesty International and UN Human Rights Commissioner call for abolition of the death penalty in the USA after a failed execution

The human rights organization Amnesty International and UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk are calling for the death penalty to be abolished in the USA. The reason is the failed execution of Christa Gail Pike, who was convicted of murder. She had survived two lethal injections.

Türk explained on Platform X that the case of 50-year-old Pike made it clear why the death penalty should be abolished. “The ongoing physical and mental suffering caused by several failed execution attempts is despicable and cruel,” emphasized Türk. He also appealed to authorities to pardon Pike.

Pike's condition is unclear

According to her attorneys, Pike is being treated at a hospital near the detention center in Nashville, Tennessee. Her condition is unclear. According to her lawyer Randy Spivey, she is still alive. "We don't have an estimate of her prognosis or much new information about her health at this time. But we do know that she is still alive and receiving life-saving medical care," Spivey said.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee asked for patience until the background is clarified. He had received no new information about Pike's condition and described what happened at the execution as "deeply disturbing."

There is still no answer to the question of how Pike managed to survive. However, it appeared that the prison staff followed the prescribed procedures, said Lee.

He ordered that no further executions should take place this year. He also announced a comprehensive review of the events.

Chaotic conditions during execution?

Pike was scheduled to be executed in Tennessee on Wednesday evening, becoming the first woman in more than 200 years - but that didn't go as planned.

Attorney Steve Ferrell said Pike feared complications could arise from the injection because she suffered from a blood disorder that makes it difficult to insert needles into her veins. "She kept telling us that she had had difficulty getting blood tests," Ferrell said.

Spivey reported he counted at least seven needles used on her left arm alone. "Ms. Pike was not only cooperative, but even gave instructions to the people placing the IV lines where to place them," Spivey said. She kept saying, “Please try higher on the shoulder.”

Her lawyers also cited a lack of emergency medical care and the possibility of contaminated or tainted pentobarbital - the substance used in the execution. Several eyewitnesses reported that Pike continued to breathe after being given a lethal injection. The US organization Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) described Pike's case as "the worst" it has ever recorded.

Classmate cruelly tortured

Pike was sentenced to death for murder in 1996, in a trial that was already widely followed by the media. She was 18 years old at the time of the crime. The court found it proven that Pike, her boyfriend at the time and another person had cruelly tortured a classmate with a box cutter.

Human rights activists had protested against the execution of the death sentence because of Pike's young age at the time of the crime. Pike suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. She was abused and raped several times in her childhood - this was not sufficiently taken into account.

An appeals court had declared the doubts about the legality of the previous proceedings against Pike to be well-founded and initially stopped the execution - but the Supreme Court had decided otherwise and then allowed the execution.