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.
How do they not have a backup plan or six for things like this.
Lethal injection administered and didn’t work, but she’s still asleep? Maybe start a new IV in a different vein? Apply pressure to her carotid arteries? Put an O2 mask on her and connect it to literally anything other than O2? Throw her out of the fucking window?
Killing each other is something we’re supposed to be good at…
If you’re going to kill people, there are so many better ways:
Long drop hanging: gets the job done, quite effective, mature technology. Sometimes rips a head off (gruesome, but not more painful to the victim) or fails to break the neck (leads to rapid unconsciousness due to interruption of blood supply to the brain and cerebral oedema, then death by asphyxiation / cardiac arrest)
Guillotine: very effective if the machine is well designed and maintained. Makes a bit of a mess, but if you do it in a room that’s designed like an abattoir, it’s easy enough to clean up. Probably not much suffering for the victim - it’s debatable whether one can maintain consciousness, but either way, not for a long time.
Shooting: can be relatively humane if done properly, but can be messed up quite badly. In East Germany they did it by an unexpected shot to the back of the head at close range, which is surprisingly humane, considering what that government was capable of.
Nitrogen gas: leads to rapid, painless loss of consciousness. The victim will convulse, but they’re not conscious anymore by that time. If your systems are set up properly, it’s very effective.
But the bottom line is that it’s not a good policy to kill convicted criminals. No justice system is perfect, so innocents get executed. It’s been repeatedly shown to be ineffective as a deterrent. It’s difficult to do well, so it ends up being expensive, in most cases more expensive than just keeping them locked up.
https://youtu.be/_DrsVhzbLzU
Context: the man arguing against capital punishment is a political satire magazine editor and the woman arguing for eventually became the UK’s home secretary. Home secretary is one of the highest jobs in UK politics, and is in control of the police and justice system…