Christa Pike, who survived two doses of a lethal injection drug last week during a botched execution in Tennessee, is conscious and speaking, her lawyers said in a statement on Tuesday.
Ms. Pike continues to receive critical medical care at a Nashville hospital, the lawyers said. The prognosis remains unclear, they said, but they expect a long recovery.
“Christa is a survivor and will take recovery one day at a time,” the lawyers said.
Ms. Pike, 50, is believed to be the first person to have survived doses of a lethal injection drug. She has been hospitalized since the execution attempt on Sept. 30, after it became clear to witnesses that she was still breathing after two doses of pentobarbital, the drug used in lethal injection executions.
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I feel like regardless of where you stand on the issue of capital punishment, everyone should agree that if the drugs got administered and it didn’t work that’s a double jeopardy kind of situation. But alas.
You’d be surprised. I saw people online arguing they should have just kept trying until she was dead, regardless of the suffering inflicted. A surprising number of people are 100% on board with the State literally torturing someone to death if they think it’s “deserved”.
That seems like a good argument for not being able to attempt the execution again, but by default the offender in such a case should still remain in prison for life.