The lethal injection drug used in Christa Pike’s botched execution was just used in Texas. A look at the two cases

J. Miles Cary/Knoxville News-Sentinel/USA Today Network/Reuters

Two scheduled executions a week apart have highlighted the ongoing debate over the practice of lethal injection in the US, with both using the same drug but yielding dramatically different outcomes.

Texas on Wednesday executed 46-year-old Jamaal Howard, a man who fatally shot a convenience store clerk more than two decades ago.

Howard was pronounced dead at 8:03 p.m., the Associated Press reported, after receiving a lethal dose of pentobarbital, a barbiturate that can cause death, at a state prison in Huntsville.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP

He was the 30th person to be executed in the US this year, but the first since the botched execution attempt of Christa Pike in Tennessee, where officials administered the same drug – but she survived.

As Pike remains hospitalized and a legal battle plays out over her future, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has ordered a third-party investigation into what went wrong and halted executions in the state for the rest of the year. Pike was the second failed execution attempt the state has seen this year.

After the pentobarbital was administered Wednesday night, Howard took a couple of breaths and gasped, the AP reported, before making snoring sounds that grew quiet within 30 seconds. He was pronounced dead 19 minutes later.

After Pike was injected with the drug on September 30, she also began snoring and moaning, according to media witnesses. But she kept breathing.

An unconscious Pike was later taken to a Nashville hospital and placed on a ventilator. Her attorneys announced Tuesday she was awake and speaking in what they called a “medically unprecedented” recovery.

According to documents compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center, both Tennessee and Texas have execution protocols that require syringes to be prepared with a 100 ml solution that contains 5 grams of pentobarbital.

Pike was administered two doses of the solution, witnesses said.

It’s unknown exactly how many doses Howard received. CNN has reached out to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for more information on his execution.

Pike, who was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, was to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years.

Pike’s attorneys said her executioners struggled to place IV lines to administer the lethal injection, and they previously warned the state of difficulties finding her vein access. Randy Spivey, one of Pike’s lawyers, said she talked with the execution team about where they should try to insert the IV lines.

An emergency motion ordering the state to preserve evidence said those administering the lethal injection attempted to gain IV access to Pike using “at least seven needles,” with one needle “bent in a 90-degree angle when it was removed.” A judge granted the motion Wednesday.

When she arrived at the hospital, Pike’s arms were “swollen, burned and blistered,” her attorneys said. Pentobarbital “burns upon contact, including skin, tissue, and veins,” they said. The attorneys believe issues with the IV meant the drug flowed into her body instead of her bloodstream.

The Tennessee Department of Correction said it followed its lethal execution protocol, which approves a one-drug method of pentobarbital and allows a backup injection if the inmate is still alive.

There is no protocol for what happens if the second injection does not work.

Pike is “ angry and confused about everything right now,” but is “very aware that the state tried to execute her,” Spivey told reporters on the sidelines of Wednesday’s hearing on the botched execution, adding that Pike has a “long road to recovery.”

Pike has pneumonia and a blood clot in one of her arms, and is not able to swallow and therefore not eating, Spivey said Wednesday.

Dipti Vaidya/USA Today Network/Imagn Images/Reuters

Christa Pike’s attorneys believed she was brain-dead before she woke up ‘to the shock of everyone’

Before Howard’s planned execution, his attorneys filed motions Wednesday before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to block it, arguing he was intellectually disabled and faced risks similar to Pike’s case because the same drug was being used with questions raised over its quality.

The court denied his motions without comment.

Hours earlier, Pike’s attorneys were also in court as a judge ruled the state of Tennessee must preserve all evidence related to her failed execution, including 911 calls, communications between state officials, and physical evidence.

The state said it collected things like logbooks, medical waste, and electrocardiogram readouts from the execution chamber. But other evidence, such as cut IV lines transported to the hospital with Pike, may not be in the Tennessee Department of Correction’s custody.

The state’s Correction Commissioner is stepping down later this month amid the backlash, which has brought scrutiny to the state’s method of lethal injection and propelled the death penalty to become a main point of debate in Tennessee’s gubernatorial race.

US Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who is the Republican nominee for governor, called to bring back the electric chair and “deliver justice for these victims swiftly.”

Meanwhile, Blackburn’s Democratic opponent Jerri Green vowed to “enact a moratorium on all future executions” in the state.

“What happened on that gurney wasn’t just an administrative failure; it was torture, plain and simple,” Green said in a statement.

“The facts are clear: the death penalty has proven to be an ineffective deterrent to violent crime, it is vastly more expensive than life imprisonment, and it is riddled with bias,” her statement continues.

J. Miles Cary/诺克斯维尔新闻哨兵报/今日美国网络/路透社

相隔一周的两起预定死刑执行凸显了美国关于注射死刑做法的持续争论，这两起执行都使用了相同的药物，但结果却截然不同。

德克萨斯州周三处决了 46 岁的贾马尔·霍华德，他于 20 多年前枪杀了一名便利店店员。

据美联社报道，霍华德于晚上 8 点 03 分被宣布死亡，此前他在亨茨维尔的一所州立监狱接受了致命剂量的戊巴比妥钠（一种可致死的巴比妥类药物）。

德克萨斯州刑事司法部（美联社）

他是今年美国第 30 个被执行死刑的人，但却是自田纳西州克丽斯塔·派克死刑执行失败以来第一个被执行死刑的人。当时，官员们给她注射了同样的药物，但她活了下来。

在派克仍在住院治疗，且围绕她未来的法律诉讼仍在进行之际，田纳西州州长比尔·李已下令对此次死刑执行失败的原因展开第三方调查，并暂停该州今年剩余时间的所有死刑执行。派克是该州今年第二次死刑执行失败的案例。

据美联社报道，周三晚间注射戊巴比妥钠后，霍华德吸了几口气，喘了口气，随后发出鼾声，但30秒后鼾声渐渐消失。19分钟后，他被宣布死亡。

据媒体目击者称，派克在9月30日被注射药物后，也开始打鼾和呻吟。但她仍然保持呼吸。

昏迷不醒的派克随后被送往纳什维尔的一家医院，并上了呼吸机。她的律师周二宣布，她已经苏醒并能说话，他们称之为“医学上前所未有的”康复。

根据死刑信息中心汇编的文件，田纳西州和德克萨斯州都有执行死刑的规程，要求用含有 5 克戊巴比妥的 100 毫升溶液配制注射器。

目击者称，派克被注射了两剂该溶液。

目前尚不清楚霍华德究竟接受了多少剂疫苗。CNN已联系德克萨斯州刑事司法部，以获取更多关于其死刑执行的信息。

派克因 1995 年谋杀 19 岁的科琳·斯莱默而被判处死刑，她将成为 200 年来田纳西州第一个被处决的女性。

派克的律师表示，行刑人员在为她注射死刑时，难以找到静脉输液管，他们此前曾警告州政府，寻找静脉通路存在困难。派克的律师之一兰迪·斯派维表示，她曾与行刑队讨论过应该尝试在哪些位置插入静脉输液管。

一份要求州政府保存证据的紧急动议指出，执行注射死刑的人员试图使用“至少七根针”为派克建立静脉通路，其中一根针“拔出时已弯曲成90度角”。法官于周三批准了该动议。

派克的律师称，她到达医院时，双臂“肿胀、灼伤且起水泡”。他们表示，戊巴比妥“接触皮肤、组织和静脉都会造成灼伤”。律师们认为，静脉注射出现问题导致药物流入她的体内，而不是进入血液循环。

田纳西州惩教部门表示，他们遵循了死刑执行程序，该程序批准使用戊巴比妥单药注射法，并允许在囚犯仍然活着的情况下进行备用注射。

如果第二次注射无效，目前还没有相应的处理方案。

斯派维在周三关于死刑执行失败的听证会间隙告诉记者，派克“现在对一切都感到愤怒和困惑”，但她“非常清楚州政府试图处决她”，并补充说，派克“康复之路还很长”。

斯派维周三表示，派克患有肺炎，一只手臂上有血栓，无法吞咽，因此无法进食。

Dipti Vaidya/今日美国网络/Imagn Images/路透社

克丽斯塔·派克的律师们认为，在她醒来之前她已经脑死亡，“这让所有人都感到震惊”。

在霍华德被执行死刑之前，他的律师于周三向德克萨斯州刑事上诉法院提交动议，要求阻止死刑执行。律师辩称，霍华德智力残疾，并且面临着与派克案件类似的风险，因为使用的是同一种药物，而这种药物的质量受到了质疑。

法院未作任何评论便驳回了他的动议。

几个小时前，派克的律师也出庭了，法官裁定田纳西州必须保存与她死刑执行失败有关的所有证据，包括 911 报警电话、州政府官员之间的通信以及物证。

州政府表示，他们从行刑室收集了诸如日志、医疗垃圾和心电图读数等物品。但其他证据，例如与派克一同送往医院的被割断的静脉输液管，可能并不在田纳西州惩教部门的保管之下。

由于舆论反弹，该州惩教署署长将于本月晚些时候辞职。此次反弹使人们对该州的注射死刑方式进行了审查，并将死刑推向田纳西州州长竞选的主要辩论点。

美国参议员玛莎·布莱克本（Marsha Blackburn）是共和党州长候选人，她呼吁恢复电椅死刑，“迅速为这些受害者伸张正义”。

与此同时，布莱克本的民主党对手杰里·格林誓言要在该州“暂停所有未来的死刑”。

格林在一份声明中说：“那张担架上发生的事情不仅仅是行政失误；那就是酷刑，明明白白的酷刑。”

“事实很清楚：死刑已被证明对暴力犯罪没有有效的威慑作用，它比终身监禁要昂贵得多，而且充满了偏见，”她的声明继续说道。