The lone woman on Tennessee’s death row was still alive after she was administered two lethal injections, her lawyer said in a motion seeking to halt her execution Wednesday night, a stunning development after the Supreme Court had stepped in to allow the state to put her to death.
At 8:26 p.m. local time, witnesses said “executioners had injected both syringes of lethal injection chemicals” and Christa Pike was “still alive and snoring,” her lawyers said in a federal court filing.
They said Pike “has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat” and that curtains to the death chamber “have gone down twice.”
It’s an absurdity, but if you’re going to execute people as humanely as possibly then yeah - if they’re still alive after the attempt you have to provide assistance. What’s the alternative?
I grew up on a farm and my dad would have to slaughter the chickens we raised to feed the family. Despite trying to make their end as quick and painless as possible, the “chicken running around with its head cut off” was an actual thing sometimes. There’s even a famous extremely rare occurrence of a chicken surviving its own beheading: Mike the Headless Chicken. Of course that chicken was monetized because Capitalism, but the point remains: if you have to take a life for whatever reason, there’s no going back.
Trying to execute people as humanely as possible is a noble intention, but you need to have a backup plan in case the drugs fail. Just like Mike, trying to rescue her and keep her technically alive after the botched execution attempt is cruelty, plain and simple. It’s also preventable, and completely unnecessary…
I think the backup plan was more drugs, which they administered.
I’m not quite sure what backup plan you might be thinking of? Beheading? Strangulation? Shooting?
The mind boggles.
Whatever the plan is, there has to be a point at which the executioners acknowledge that the plan has failed, and after that point the prisoner needs to be made as comfortable as possible.
A headless chicken is not analogous to a person who’s had an intramuscular injection of whatever cocktail.
Not that it wasn’t already grisly and fucked. But didnt she ask specifically to be shot? If this doesnt prove that theres no truly humane way then nothing really will. Kind of feel like she was trying to avoid all of this in some way.
She petitioned to be hanged, if I recall correctly.
Gruesome. All around.
That’s not what my comment is about.
The comment I replied to is saying caring for someone who’s had an injection and not died is inhumane.
My point is, if you’ve given someone two injections and it hasn’t worked, then what would be your plan b? You can’t just pull out a gun and shoot them on the gurney.
She was clearly not consenting to this because she knew she would end up at this outcome. If it were up to me somehow this far down the line I would have complied with her request because you can’t actually be humane when you are murdering people.
She wasn’t consenting to being executed? What?
They have to follow the established protocol. If the injections don’t work they can’t just shoot her in the head because she mentioned something about that a few weeks prior.
After the botched injections, if you had have asked her whether she would prefer to go to hospital or be shot in the head I’m pretty sure she would choose the former.
Except in my scenario she would not have received the injections. The state shouldn’t be murdering people anyway. My point is there is no ethical or humane way to do this. They’re murdering someone. Its gruesome no matter the method.
Everyone is in agreement on that.
The comment I replied to was saying that if you’re going to execute someone, you can’t take them to hospital if it doesn’t work. My answer is, it’s absurd but that’s the best option.
Of course you’re welcome to opine that people shouldn’t be executed, but that’s not what this thread is about.
Not executing people
I agree wholeheartedly that executing people is barbaric.
My question is, if you’re going to do it, then what do you do if it doesn’t work,?
What value does the question really have though? It’s not that hard to not murder people, there shouldn’t need to be a plan B
God this is tedious.
My comment is a response to the parent comment:
What is the alternative, once the injections have not worked ?
You’re correct, of course: don’t do the injections or any other method of execution in the first place. However, supposing you’ve already botched the injections what is the appropriate course of action?