Christa Pike execution fails: What next when a lethal injection is botched?

The only woman on Tennessee ‘death row’ is in hospital after two injections failed to kill her.

This handout picture dated January 12, 2023 provided by the Tennessee Department of Correction, shows convicted American murderer Christa Pike [File: AFP]

Two doses of a lethal injection drug have failed to kill Christa Gail Pike , a 50-year-old woman who was due to be executed on Wednesday. Pike was taken to hospital after it was found that her heart was still beating following the procedure.

Pike would have been the first woman in more than 200 years to be put to death in Tennessee and was the only woman on the state’s death row. Her attempted execution with doses of the sedative pentobarbital went ahead despite a last-minute stay by a federal appeals court on Wednesday, which was overturned just an hour before her execution by the Supreme Court.

list 1 of 3 US appeals court halts Tennessee execution of Christa Pike

list 2 of 3 Tennessee death-row prisoner Christa Pike survives lethal injections

list 3 of 3 Execution of US woman Christa Pike fails after botched lethal injection

Human rights experts said the botched execution illustrates why the death penalty is inhumane and should be abolished.

Clive Stafford Smith, a human rights lawyer who has represented many American death row inmates as well as detainees held at the notorious Guantanamo Bay detention centre, told Al Jazeera: “I’ve been in the execution chamber with six of my clients and it’s never the clinical process they’d have you believe. And it’s always a desperate midnight struggle to stop it.”

He added: “In the end, you have to question whether this makes the world a better, more civilised place. Why, indeed, do we kill people to prove that killing people is wrong?”

Ahead of the planned execution, Morris Tidball-Binz, the UN special rapporteur on arbitrary executions, told the UK’s Times newspaper: “If executed, Christa Pike would be a victim of torture to death. This will be a gross violation of human rights.”

Here’s what we know about what happens when an execution goes wrong.

What is the case against Pike?

Pike was found guilty of the murder of another young woman she had viewed as a romantic rival, when she was aged 18, more than 30 years ago.

In January 1995, Pike, her 17-year-old boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and 18-year-old Shadolla Peterson lured Colleen Slemmer, 19, into a wooded area and tortured and killed her. All four were students at a Job Corps vocational centre in Knoxville.

The case attracted huge public interest, especially after it was revealed that the attackers had carved a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest, which Shipp later admitted to doing. Pike, who delivered the killing blow to the victim’s head, smashing her skull, kept a piece of Slemmer’s skull afterwards.

Pike and Shipp confessed and were convicted of first-degree murder in 1996. Pike was sentenced to death; Shipp, who was 17 at the time and therefore ineligible for the death penalty, received life with the possibility of parole.

Her case is highly unusual in that she is a woman and was a teenager when she carried out the murder. Other death row inmates who were convicted at the age of 18 – all men – have had their sentences commuted to life in prison without parole.

“Christa is a 50-year-old remorseful woman who understands her actions,” her lawyers wrote. They also argued that Pike had been the victim of appalling childhood abuse – including two rapes when she was aged 11 and 17.

Stafford Smith told Al Jazeera: “Very few women are executed, but fewer still in Tennessee – it has been 200 years. So, this is a step back to about 1820. Christa was just a teenager, and had undergone horrendous abuse as a child. Now she is 50, a totally different person. It is so pointless – will this really make the world a more civilised place?”

Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, however, has spoken out in support of the execution.

On Wednesday, a federal court temporarily put the planned execution on hold, on legal and technical grounds. But an hour before the midnight deadline for her execution was to expire, the US Supreme Court overruled the stay on her execution, paving the way for jail authorities to proceed.

Pike had asked to be shot by an all-female firing squad instead of by lethal injection, which she said she feared would be too painful.

Her lawyers had also argued that the injection would be torturous for her as she has “small veins”. This request was denied, however.

How did the execution go wrong?

Following the Supreme Court’s order to go ahead with the execution, Pike was administered two doses of the sedative pentobarbital at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee, on Wednesday evening, according to media witnesses.

From outside the prison, The Associated Press journalist Kim Chandler reported that, initially, when the injections were administered, Pike appeared noticeably awake.

“The blinds were closed for the first time to the execution chamber at 7:46pm (23:46 GMT), they opened again at 7:49pm (23:49 GMT),” Chandler said.

“Her mouth fell open a few times, and she began to loudly snore. She gasped a few times,” she noted.

“The curtain to the execution chamber closed for the final time at 8:06pm (00:06 GMT), and she could be heard loudly snoring, clearly very alive, in the chamber until media witnesses were told to leave the area at about 8:53pm (00:53 GMT),” Chandler added.

The Tennessee Department of Correction did not immediately explain why the execution had not been completed.

According to NBC News, late on Wednesday, Pike’s lawyers had filed a federal court motion during the process seeking again to halt her execution, citing witnesses’ accounts that “executioners had injected both syringes of lethal injection chemicals and Pike is still alive and snoring”.

“Ms Pike has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat and is audibly snoring,” they said, according to the court documents seen by the media.

Her lawyers also told US media that while she was being treated at a hospital, she needed “immediate medical care”.

Why didn’t the execution work?

Tennessee authorities have not explained this yet.

However, Stafford Smith, who has attended several executions in support of clients in the past, told Al Jazeera that there are two probable reasons why the injection failed to kill Pike.

“The first is that the drugs were probably out of date. Something that we’ve been observing a lot for the last 10 years is that they administer drugs that are no longer valid,” he said.

Stafford Smith noted that there is, however, a valid reason for this, which is that drug companies make sedatives like pentobarbital to help people and save lives and are often opposed to their drugs being used to execute people.

“So the states have a real problem getting drugs to kill people and they’ve gone to extraordinary extents with very unreliable providers. So you can suspect that they just had an invalid batch of drugs in Pike’s case,” Smith explained.

“The other thing about Pike is that, as is very common with people who end up in her situation, they’ve been through a lot of abuse and drug abuse. So it might have been very hard to find her veins and get a needle into it. Moreover, doctors are also not allowed to take part in this process in the US. So they have incompetent people administering such drugs, which could have resulted in the injection failing,” he added.

Defending its handling of the case, the Tennessee Department of Correction said in a statement late on Wednesday that the agency had “followed every step of the state’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office”.

“The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening. Christa Pike has been transported to an off-site medical facility,” the statement concluded.

What happens to Pike next?

At the moment, it is unclear, as Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has paused all remaining 2026 executions in the state following Wednesday’s incident with Pike and has called for a comprehensive, third-party review. She is currently in hospital. She may return to death row, but Stafford Smith said this is uncertain.

Has this happened before?

Yes. Botched executions do happen but the frequency varies substantially by method, according to data compiled by legal scholar Austin Sarat and the Death Penalty Information Center.

In his 2014 book, Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America’s Death Penalty, Sarat noted that from 1890 to 2010, 8,776 people were executed in the US and 276 of those executions (3.15 percent) went wrong in some way. Sarat also noted that lethal injection was the method that had the highest rate of botched executions at 7.2 percent in this period.

Previous botched lethal injection cases include the case of murderer Alva Campbell in November 2017 in Ohio. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, “the execution team first worked on both of Alva Campbell’s arms for about 30 minutes.. while he was on a gurney in the state’s death chamber and then tried to find a vein in his right leg below the knee. … About 80 minutes after the execution was scheduled to begin, the 69-year-old Campbell shook hands with two guards after it appeared the insertion was successful.”

“About two minutes later … Gary Mohr, head of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction … called off the execution after talking with the medical team, [saying] ‘It was my decision that it was not likely that we’re going to access veins.’” But a few months later, in March, 2018, Campbell died on death row due to terminal medical conditions.

“Botched executions have happened many times. I’ve had six of my clients executed over the years. Two were with the gas chamber, two with the electric chair and two with lethal injection, and there’s almost always some form of botching,” Stafford Smith said.

“But it’s just an uncivilised process carried out by people who are pretty uncivilised,” he added.

田纳西州“死囚牢房”里唯一的女性在两次注射死刑均告失败后，目前正在医院接受治疗。

这张由田纳西州惩教部门提供的、日期为 2023 年 1 月 12 日的照片显示的是被判谋杀罪的美国女犯克丽斯塔·派克。[图片来源：法新社]

克丽斯塔·盖尔·派克（Christa Gail Pike）是一名50岁的女子，原定于周三被执行死刑。注射两剂致命药物后，派克的心脏仍在跳动，随后被送往医院。

派克本将成为田纳西州200多年来首位被处决的女性，也是该州死囚牢房中唯一的女性。尽管联邦上诉法院周三在最后一刻暂缓执行死刑，但对她的注射戊巴比妥钠的死刑尝试仍然进行。然而，就在行刑前一小时，最高法院推翻了联邦上诉法院的暂缓执行裁决。

美国上诉法院叫停田纳西州对克丽斯塔·派克的死刑执行（共3条，此为第1条）

田纳西州死刑犯克丽斯塔·派克在注射死刑后幸存（共3例，此为第2例）

列表 3/3：美国女子克丽斯塔·派克死刑执行失败，注射死刑失败。

人权专家表示，这次失败的死刑执行说明了为什么死刑是不人道的，应该被废除。

曾代理过多名美国死刑犯以及关押在臭名昭著的关塔那摩湾拘留中心的被拘留者的维权律师克莱夫·斯塔福德·史密斯告诉半岛电视台：“我曾陪同我的六位客户进入行刑室，行刑过程绝非他们所描述的那种冷冰冰的程序。而且，每次行刑都是一场午夜的殊死搏斗，试图阻止死刑的执行。”

他补充道：“归根结底，你必须质疑这样做是否能让世界变得更美好、更文明。我们为什么要杀人来证明杀人是错误的呢？”

在计划执行死刑前，联合国任意处决问题特别报告员莫里斯·蒂德博尔-宾兹告诉英国《泰晤士报》：“如果克丽斯塔·派克被处决，她将成为酷刑致死的受害者。这将是对人权的严重侵犯。”

以下是我们对执行出错时会发生什么情况的了解。

对派克的指控是什么？

30多年前，18岁的派克被判谋杀了一名年轻女子，她视该女子为情敌。

1995年1月，派克、她17岁的男友塔达里尔·希普和18岁的沙多拉·彼得森将19岁的科琳·斯莱默诱骗到树林里，对她进行折磨并杀害了她。这四人都是诺克斯维尔一所职业培训中心的学生。

这起案件引起了公众的极大关注，尤其是在得知袭击者在斯莱默的胸口刻了一个五角星之后——希普后来承认是他所为。派克击碎了受害者的头骨，致其死亡，事后他还保留了一块斯莱默的头骨碎片。

1996 年，派克和希普认罪并被判一级谋杀罪。派克被判处死刑；希普当时 17 岁，因此不符合死刑条件，被判处终身监禁，但有可能获得假释。

她的案件非常特殊，因为她是一名女性，而且作案时还是个十几岁的少女。其他被判死刑的18岁男性囚犯，他们的刑期都被减为终身监禁，不得假释。

“克丽斯塔是一位50岁、充满悔意的女性，她明白自己的行为，”她的律师写道。他们还辩称，派克童年时期遭受过骇人听闻的虐待，包括11岁和17岁时两次遭到强奸。

斯塔福德·史密斯告诉半岛电视台：“很少有女性被处决，在田纳西州就更少了——已经有200年了。所以，这相当于倒退回了1820年左右。克丽斯塔当时只是个十几岁的少女，童年时期遭受过可怕的虐待。现在她50岁了，完全变了一个人。这太没意义了——这样做真的能让世界变得更文明吗？”

然而，斯莱默的母亲梅·马丁内斯却公开表示支持执行死刑。

周三，一家联邦法院以法律和技术理由暂时中止了原定的死刑执行。但在午夜行刑截止时间前一小时，美国最高法院推翻了暂缓执行令，为监狱当局继续执行死刑铺平了道路。

派克要求由一支全部由女性组成的行刑队枪决，而不是注射死刑，她说她担心注射死刑会太痛苦。

她的律师还辩称，由于她“血管细小”，注射对她来说将是痛苦的。然而，这一请求被驳回了。

执行过程中哪里出了问题？

据媒体目击者称，在最高法院下令执行死刑后，派克于周三晚上在田纳西州纳什维尔的里弗本德最高安全级别监狱被注射了两剂镇静剂戊巴比妥。

美联社记者金·钱德勒从监狱外报道称，最初注射药物时，派克看起来明显清醒。

钱德勒说：“行刑室的百叶窗第一次在晚上 7 点 46 分（格林尼治标准时间 23 点 46 分）关闭，然后在晚上 7 点 49 分（格林尼治标准时间 23 点 49 分）再次打开。”

“她几次张开嘴，开始大声打鼾，还喘了几口气，”她写道。

钱德勒补充道：“行刑室的帘子在晚上 8 点 06 分（格林尼治标准时间 00:06）最后一次落下，人们还能听到她在行刑室里大声打鼾，显然还活着，直到晚上 8 点 53 分左右（格林尼治标准时间 00:53），媒体目击者才被告知离开该区域。”

田纳西州惩教部门没有立即解释为什么死刑执行没有完成。

据 NBC 新闻报道，周三晚些时候，派克的律师在行刑过程中向联邦法院提交了一份动议，再次寻求阻止对她的执行死刑，理由是证人称“行刑者已经注射了两支装有致命注射化学品的注射器，但派克仍然活着，还在打鼾”。

据媒体看到的法庭文件显示，他们表示：“派克女士没有失去意识，仍然有心跳，而且可以听到鼾声。”

她的律师还告诉美国媒体，她在医院接受治疗期间需要“立即就医”。

为什么执行失败了？

田纳西州当局尚未对此作出解释。

然而，过去曾多次陪同客户执行死刑的斯塔福德·史密斯告诉半岛电视台，注射死刑未能杀死派克可能有两方面的原因。

“首先，这些药物可能已经过期了。过去十年里，我们经常观察到他们使用已经失效的药物，”他说。

斯塔福德·史密斯指出，这其中有一个合理的理由，那就是制药公司生产戊巴比妥等镇静剂是为了帮助人们、拯救生命，他们通常反对用自己的药物来处决犯人。

“所以各州在获取杀人药物方面确实存在问题，他们甚至不惜一切代价，与一些非常不可靠的供应商合作。因此，你可以怀疑在派克的案例中，他们只是拿到了一批无效的药物，”史密斯解释道。

“派克的情况还有一点，那就是，像她这样最终落到如此境地的人，往往都遭受过严重的虐待和药物滥用。所以，找到她的静脉并把针头扎进去可能非常困难。此外，在美国，医生也不允许参与这种注射过程。因此，注射这些药物的往往是资质不足的人员，这可能导致注射失败，”他补充道。

田纳西州惩教部门在周三晚些时候发表声明，为其处理此案的方式辩护，称该机构“遵循了州司法部长办公室批准的合法、既定的执行程序的每一步”。

声明最后表示：“按照执行方案，注射死刑的化学药物一直有效，而且该方案不允许进行今晚已完成程序之外的任何其他操作。克丽斯塔·派克已被送往院外医疗机构。”

接下来派克会遭遇什么？

目前情况尚不明朗，因为在周三派克事件发生后，田纳西州州长比尔·李已暂停该州2026年剩余的所有死刑执行，并呼吁进行全面的第三方审查。她目前正在医院接受治疗。她可能会被送回死囚牢房，但斯塔福德·史密斯表示这尚不确定。

以前发生过这种情况吗？

是的。死刑执行失败的情况确实会发生，但根据法学学者奥斯汀·萨拉特和死刑信息中心汇编的数据，其发生频率因执行方式而异。

萨拉特在其2014年出版的《骇人景象：执行失败与美国的死刑》一书中指出，从1890年到2010年，美国共执行了8776例死刑，其中276例（3.15%）执行过程中出现失误。萨拉特还指出，在这一时期，注射死刑的失败率最高，达到7.2%。

此前执行死刑失败的案例包括2017年11月发生在俄亥俄州的谋杀犯阿尔瓦·坎贝尔的案件。据死刑信息中心称，“行刑队先是在州死刑室的担架上对阿尔瓦·坎贝尔的双臂进行了大约30分钟的注射，然后试图在他右膝下方的小腿上寻找静脉……在预定行刑时间约80分钟后，69岁的坎贝尔在注射似乎成功后与两名狱警握手。”

大约两分钟后……俄亥俄州惩教署署长加里·莫尔在与医疗团队交谈后……取消了死刑，他说：“我认为我们不太可能成功抽取静脉。” 但几个月后，2018 年 3 月，坎贝尔因绝症在死囚牢房中去世。

“执行死刑失败的案例屡见不鲜。这些年来，我的六位客户被执行死刑。其中两位被毒气室处决，两位被电椅处决，两位被注射死刑，几乎每次都出现了某种形式的失误，”斯塔福德·史密斯说道。

“但这只是由一群相当不文明的人所进行的不文明的过程，”他补充道。