Christa Pike case underscores prevalence of botched executions in US

Experts say methods such as lethal injection promise more humane form of execution but are frequently marred by mishaps.

A lethal injection chamber is shown in the state of Alabama on October 7, 2002 [File: Dave Martin/AP Photo]

The botched execution of Christa Pike has sparked debate about the death penalty in the United States, where lethal injections, experts say, are frequently marred by mishaps and incompetence.

The attempted execution of Pike, a woman sentenced to death for her participation in the murder of a classmate when she was 18 years old, was called off after two doses of pentobarbital failed to kill her on September 30.

list 1 of 3 Christa Pike was nearly taken off life support before waking, lawyers say

list 2 of 3 Christa Pike is awake after surviving execution: What happens now?

list 3 of 3 Christa Pike lawyers say she is speaking one week after failed execution

Witnesses reported that she continued to breathe, snore and lift parts of her body off the gurney to which she was strapped even after the lethal injections were administered. Pike’s lawyers said that she had regained consciousness at the hospital on October 6 but faces a long path to recovery.

Governor Bill Lee announced a pause on executions in the state and promised a “comprehensive, third-party review” of the incident, the second case this year in which Tennessee authorities have called off an execution after a failed lethal injection attempt.

The Tennessee Department of Correction declined to comment when asked by Al Jazeera why the execution attempt failed and whether it planned to try to execute Pike again.

While the case has attracted nationwide attention, experts say that botched execution attempts , largely carried out through lethal injection, are a disturbingly common feature of capital punishment in the US.

“This is an opportunity for everyone to stop and really carefully examine all of the ways in which this execution went wrong and to make good decisions about how to move forward, if we’re going to move forward with this method of execution,” said Robin Maher, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit research group based in Washington, DC.

Of the various methods of execution in the US, lethal injection is by far the most common. It is also among the least reliable.

States such as Tennessee, Idaho, Alabama, Arizona, Texas and Oklahoma have all recorded at least one botched execution via lethal injection since 2022, and a survey of executions in the US between 1890 and 2010 found that lethal injections were botched at more than twice the rate of all other methods.

Researchers attribute the poor record of lethal injection to a number of factors, including the difficulty of carrying out what amounts to a medical procedure in a prison setting without access to qualified staff.

Major medical organisations bar members from assisting in executions on the basis that it violates their mandate to do no harm, meaning that prisons rely on staff members or officials with dubious credentials to carry out the procedure.

“Lethal injection has all of the delicacies of a medical procedure: all of the error-prone qualities, all of the need for precision. But it has been warped to fit the needs of execution settings,” said Corinna Barrett Lain, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law and author of a book on lethal injection.

She explained that she has witnessed botched executions that drag on for hours and include prisoners being punctured with needles more than a dozen times. “It’s this really bad combination of a delicate procedure that is not performed in a delicate way.”

Pharmaceutical companies also restrict the use of their products in executions, meaning that some states acquire drugs used in lethal injection through facilities called compounding pharmacies.

Such pharmacies often prepare medications not manufactured commercially, and the drugs they produce are not as extensively scrutinised as mass-produced medications. Some states have also sought to stretch existing stockpiles of drugs used in lethal injections, though they can become expired or faulty.

The risks are compounded by the people the lethal injections are administered to.

Those on death row often spend years or even decades waiting for their execution. Since many are of an advanced age, they are more likely to have health issues that can further complicate the procedure.

Botched executions often feature failed attempts to locate a vein or set an IV line.

While state officials have yet to offer an explanation of why Pike’s execution failed, her lawyers had previously argued that she had small veins and a blood condition that were likely to complicate a lethal injection effort.

After the lethal injections, Pike’s lawyers described her arms as swollen and burned.

Maher, the head of the Death Penalty Information Center, said those symptoms suggest the injection may not have properly reached her bloodstream.

“Everyone has speculated that the drugs were administered to her but did not enter her bloodstream in sufficient amounts to kill her,” she said. “It’s likely that her veins were blown, or that the needle went through the vein.”

When the lethal injection drugs fail to be properly administered, executions can be drawn out and, in some cases, unnecessarily painful for prisoners.

After the first dose of pentobarbital was administered to her, Pike reportedly stated that she felt her arm was “about to burst open”.

In May, Tennessee also called off the execution of Tony Carruthers after staff struggled for more than 90 minutes to establish a backup IV line.

In February 2024, the state of Idaho likewise suspended the execution of Thomas Creech, a man in his 70s, after an execution team failed to properly insert an IV after eight attempts in his arms, legs and feet.

Despite such incidents, lethal injection has become the primary method of execution in 28 of the 29 states that still allow capital punishment, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The first execution via lethal injection occurred in Texas in 1982.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 39 people were killed by lethal injection in 2025, compared with five by lethal gas and three by firing squad. The last electrocution of a prisoner took place in 2020, and older methods such as hanging have not been employed since the 1990s.

Michael Radelet, a professor of sociology at the University of Colorado who has tracked botched executions, says that lethal injection has taken the place of older forms of execution that came to be seen as outdated and draconian.

Such methods also resulted in grim spectacles that distressed observers. Prisoners being electrocuted sometimes caught on fire or disturbed witnesses with the smell of burning flesh.

“Lethal injection is relatively new, but it’s part of a long-term trend going back hundreds of years in search of a more ‘humane’ method of execution,” Radelet told Al Jazeera.

But he added that the method’s promise of a more peaceful and clinical procedure has been belied by its poor record.

He also pointed to autopsies that show that, despite the relative sterility of the procedure, prisoners still experience pain.

Critics say such information calls into question the widespread use of lethal injection and whether it should be discarded altogether.

“Lethal injection, from the very start, was about a humane-looking execution, not a humane execution,” said Lain, the law professor. “There’s a big difference.”

专家表示，注射死刑等方法有望成为一种更人道的处决方式，但经常会发生意外。

2002年10月7日，阿拉巴马州展示了一个注射死刑室。[图片：Dave Martin/AP Photo]

克丽斯塔·派克的死刑执行失败引发了美国关于死刑的辩论。专家表示，在美国，注射死刑经常因事故和操作不当而受到影响。

9 月 30 日，因参与谋杀一名同学而被判处死刑的派克，在注射了两剂戊巴比妥钠后未能死亡，行刑被取消。

律师称，克丽斯塔·派克在苏醒前差点被撤掉生命维持系统（共3条记录，此为第1条）。

列表 2/3 克丽斯塔·派克在行刑后醒来：接下来会发生什么？

克丽斯塔·派克的律师称，她在死刑执行失败一周后发表讲话（共3条记录中的第3条）。律师表示，这是她在死刑执行失败一周后发表讲话的记录。

目击者称，即使在注射致命药物后，她仍然呼吸、打鼾，并且能将身体部分抬离固定在担架上的装置。派克的律师表示，她于10月6日在医院恢复了意识，但康复之路漫长。

州长比尔·李宣布暂停该州的死刑执行，并承诺对该事件进行“全面的第三方审查”。这是今年田纳西州当局在注射死刑失败后取消死刑的第二起案件。

半岛电视台询问田纳西州惩教部门为何执行死刑失败，以及是否计划再次尝试执行对派克的死刑，但惩教部门拒绝置评。

虽然此案引起了全国的关注，但专家表示，执行死刑失败（主要通过注射死刑）是美国死刑执行中一个令人不安的常见现象。

“这是一个让所有人停下来，认真审视这次执行死刑出错的所有方面，并就如何继续推进这一死刑执行方式做出正确决定的机会，如果我们要继续采用这种执行方式的话，”位于华盛顿特区的非营利研究组织“死刑信息中心”的执行主任罗宾·马赫说。

在美国的各种死刑执行方式中，注射死刑是最常见的，但同时也是最不可靠的方式之一。

自 2022 年以来，田纳西州、爱达荷州、阿拉巴马州、亚利桑那州、德克萨斯州和俄克拉荷马州等州都至少记录了一起注射死刑失败的案例。一项对 1890 年至 2010 年间美国死刑执行情况的调查发现，注射死刑的失败率是其他所有方法的两倍多。

研究人员将注射死刑记录不佳归因于多种因素，其中包括在监狱环境中缺乏合格工作人员的情况下，难以进行相当于医疗程序的注射死刑。

主要医疗组织禁止其成员协助执行死刑，理由是这违反了他们不伤害病人的宗旨，这意味着监狱只能依靠资质可疑的工作人员或官员来执行死刑。

“注射死刑具备所有医疗程序的微妙之处：所有容易出错的因素，所有对精准性的要求。但它已被扭曲以适应执行死刑环境的需要，”里士满大学法学院教授、注射死刑专著的作者科琳娜·巴雷特·莱恩说道。

她解释说，她亲眼目睹过一些拙劣的死刑执行，这些执行持续数小时，其中一名囚犯被针扎了十几次。“这是一个非常糟糕的组合，原本是一个精细的程序，却没有以精细的方式执行。”

制药公司也限制其产品在死刑执行中的使用，这意味着一些州通过称为配药药房的机构获取用于注射死刑的药物。

这类药房通常配制非商业生产的药物，而且它们生产的药物不像大规模生产的药物那样受到严格的审查。一些州也试图延长用于注射死刑的现有药物储备的使用期限，尽管这些药物可能会过期或失效。

接受致命注射的人群会加剧风险。

死刑犯往往要等待数年甚至数十年才能被执行死刑。由于许多人年事已高，他们更容易出现健康问题，这会使行刑过程更加复杂。

失败的死刑执行往往表现为寻找静脉或建立静脉输液管的失败。

尽管州政府官员尚未解释为什么派克的死刑执行失败，但她的律师此前曾辩称，她的血管细小，并且患有血液疾病，这可能会使注射死刑变得复杂。

注射致命药物后，派克的律师形容她的手臂肿胀且有烧伤痕迹。

死刑信息中心负责人马赫表示，这些症状表明注射的药物可能没有完全进入她的血液。

“大家都猜测她被注射了药物，但药物进入血液的剂量不足以致命，”她说。“很可能是她的血管破裂了，或者针头刺穿了血管。”

当注射死刑药物未能正确使用时，行刑过程可能会被延长，在某些情况下，还会给囚犯带来不必要的痛苦。

据报道，在注射第一剂戊巴比妥钠后，派克表示她感觉自己的手臂“快要爆裂开来”。

今年 5 月，田纳西州也取消了对托尼·卡拉瑟斯的死刑执行，此前工作人员花了 90 多分钟才建立起备用静脉输液管。

2024 年 2 月，爱达荷州暂停了对 70 多岁的托马斯·克里奇的死刑执行，此前行刑队在尝试八次将静脉输液管插入他的手臂、腿部和脚部后均未能成功。

尽管发生过此类事件，但据全国州议会联合会统计，在仍然保留死刑的29个州中，有28个州已将注射死刑作为主要的执行方式。美国首次采用注射死刑是在1982年的德克萨斯州。

据死刑信息中心统计，2025年共有39人被注射死刑，5人被毒气处决，3人被枪决。最后一次电刑发生在2020年，而绞刑等较早的死刑方式自20世纪90年代以来就已不再使用。

科罗拉多大学社会学教授迈克尔·拉德莱特 (Michael Radelet) 追踪过多次死刑执行失败的案例，他表示，注射死刑已经取代了以前那些被视为过时和严苛的死刑执行方式。

这些方法也造成了令人毛骨悚然的景象，令旁观者感到不安。被电刑处死的囚犯有时会着火，或者散发出烧焦的肉味，令目击者感到不适。

“注射死刑虽然是相对较新的方法，但它是数百年来人们寻求更‘人道’的处决方式这一长期趋势的一部分，”拉德莱特告诉半岛电视台。

但他补充说，该方法承诺的更平和、更科学的手术过程，已被其糟糕的记录所否定。

他还指出，尸检结果显示，尽管该手术相对无菌，但囚犯仍然会感到疼痛。

批评人士表示，此类信息令人质疑注射死刑的广泛使用，以及是否应该完全废除注射死刑。

“从一开始，注射死刑的目的就是为了表面上人道，而不是真正人道，”法学教授莱恩说。“这两者之间有很大的区别。”