This might be another nail in the coffin for the death penalty (the number of states that have abolished the death penalty has doubled in the last 20 years already).
They gave this broad both barrels of the lethal dose when one should have worked, and she lived.
Tennessee death row inmate survives 2 lethal injection doses in failed execution attempt
Christa Pike, the lone woman on Tennessee’s death row, remained alive after two doses of a lethal injection drug during a failed execution attempt Wednesday night
Tennessee officials were unable to execute death row inmate Christa Pike on Wednesday night after she remained alive following two doses of a lethal injection drug, according to court filings from her attorneys.
The failed execution prompted Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to halt the state’s remaining scheduled execution this year and order "a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred." Pike was taken to a hospital by ambulance for treatment, her attorneys said.
"Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the State's most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but is effective," Lee said in a statement.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said it "followed every step of the State's lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General's Office."
Witnesses said Pike was strapped to a gurney when the curtains to the execution chamber were raised at 7:27 p.m. local time. In what were expected to be her final words, Pike said she was "at peace."
But the execution did not proceed as expected. Pike remained awake and at one point raised her head, asking prison officials whether her arm was supposed to feel that way.
At 8:26 p.m. local time, witnesses said the executioners had "injected both syringes of lethal injection chemicals and Pike is still alive and snoring," her lawyers said in a federal court filing, according to The Associated Press.
Pike’s attorneys said in emergency court filings that she "has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat," arguing that the attempted execution was causing "unnecessary agony."
At 8:53 p.m., media witnesses were escorted from the area after Pike could still be heard snoring behind the closed curtain.
The state’s protocol calls for a secondary set of drug syringes to be administered "if the inmate is not deceased" after the first set. The protocol does not specify what should happen if the inmate remains alive after the second set.
This comes after the
U.S. Supreme Court late Wednesday vacated a last-minute stay that had temporarily spared her from becoming the first woman executed in the state since the early 1800s.
The Supreme Court granted
Tennessee's application to vacate the stay issued Wednesday morning by the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, clearing the way for the state to carry out Pike's execution.
In a 2-1 split decision, the Sixth Circuit issued a stay "until further notice" as the court weighed motions filed by Pike's attorneys and the Tennessee Attorney General's Office.
The state immediately appealed to the Supreme Court, seeking to have the stay lifted.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented from the Supreme Court's decision, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Sotomayor argued that the Sixth Circuit should have been given time to consider Pike's pending legal challenge before the execution proceeded.
www.ynetnews.com
