Independent inquiry ordered after failed execution of Pike, who was convicted of 1994 murder

Tennessee’s governor on Thursday said it was “deeply disturbing” that his state botched the execution of a death row prisoner who remained alive and snoring 40 minutes after receiving a double dose of the lethal drug that should have quickly killed her.

Bill Lee, a Republican, has suspended all executions in the state until at least the end of the year and ordered an independent inquiry after Wednesday night’s failed attempt to put to death Christa Pike, who was convicted of murder, at the execution chamber in Nashville.

Meanwhile, Pike, 50, remained in the hospital on Thursday afternoon. “We don’t have a sense of her prognosis or much update on her health at the moment, but we do know that she is alive right now and receiving life-saving medical care,” Randy Spivey, one of her attorneys, said at an afternoon press conference.

    • tidderuuf@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Reading the eyewitness accounts from the botched execution, fucking wild is an understatement.

      They had non medical trained staff administering it, old and untested drugs that came from unknown sources, they closed the blinds on multiple occasions so no one in the public really knows everything that happened behind the scenes.

      One reporter even said they have never seen an execution like this and they have attended a lot.

      • frongt@lemmy.zip
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        2 days ago

        They had non medical trained staff administering it

        This is not unusual. Ethical medical personnel don’t perform executions.

        • Mirshe@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Same with the old and untested drugs. Medical companies won’t sell certain drugs to prisons because they don’t want their drugs associated with lethal injection, and so prisons that do use lethal injection either simply lie their asses off or use whatever ancient shit they can find.