A failed execution attempt in the US state of Tennessee revived the debate over the death penalty, after death row inmate Christa Pike, 50, survived two toxic injections that were supposed to end her life. Pike, who was convicted of murder, is still in critical condition, according to what her lawyer reported, while the circumstances of the execution of the sentence raised several questions about the method used.
Reporters were able to follow parts of the execution inside a high-security prison in Tennessee. "Tagesschau" quoted Kim Chandler from the Associated Press, who followed what happened, as saying that Pike was pinned to a stretcher and was snoring loudly and regularly, and at some moments she seemed to be catching her breath with difficulty. According to the description provided by the agency, it was clear that she was still alive for a longer period than expected.
The execution attempt reveals the errors of toxic injection
After that, Baek was taken to hospital, where, according to her lawyer, she is receiving life-saving treatment, while it remains unclear whether she will survive. Her lawyer, Randy Spivey, believes that what his client was subjected to was more severe than any punishment faced by another person in the history of the death penalty in the United States, demanding that the death sentence be abolished and replaced with life imprisonment.
Spivey talks about a series of errors during the attempt to implement the ruling. He said that he counted seven pricks in Bayek's left arm before the intravenous catheter could be inserted, while her right arm turned purple during the injection process.
According to Tagschau, University of Richmond law professor Corinna Barrett-Line, who has long studied executions in the United States, does not see these errors as surprising. It indicates that the error rate in executions by toxic injection is twice the rate recorded in any other method, and ranges between seven and eight percent. In 2022, the rate, according to her, reached about 40 percent.
Tennessee's suspension of executions revives debate over lethal injections
The attempted execution of Pike follows a similar incident in Tennessee in May this year, when prison staff, who had no medical training, failed to insert the catheter needed to carry out the execution. But Pike's case is different from that incident, as she is the first person in the United States to survive an execution attempt after actually receiving lethal injections.
Following the incident, the Republican Governor of Tennessee, Bill Lee, announced the suspension of all executions scheduled in the state during the current year, and ordered the opening of an investigation into the circumstances of what happened.
Law professor Corinna Barrett-Line believes that the incident may open the door to a broader discussion about the death penalty. She criticizes the belief that toxic injections represent a “humane” way to end life, noting that autopsy reports show cases of suffocation that, she says, may last an hour, two, or even three hours.
Line considers the expression “human murder” to be a contradiction in itself, and she believes that ending a human life always requires the use of force, because the body resists before it stops working. In her view, the humane way to end the life of a person on death row is life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
