On Wednesday, the state of Tennessee twice tried to kill Christa Pike, failed both times, and ended up grievously wounding her. Pike, a convicted murderer, was meant to be executed using a strong dose of the sedative pentobarbital. This was even after Pike’s lawyers and an outside doctor, Joel Zivot, warned that the lethal injection was a risky procedure; Zivot advised that Pike’s particular medical conditions could “lead to a painful and cruel death by lethal injection.”
Zivot was right to say that Pike would suffer. But the nature of that suffering was, if anything, even worse than he predicted. Pike was given one ostensibly lethal dose, but she continued to live. She was then given another dose and fell into a deep sleep, but still did not die. At that point, she was taken to a hospital, where she continues to be in critical condition, being fed by a tube and breathing through a ventilator. According to her lawyer, she has not spoken since the failed execution.
The entire grotesque spectacle highlights how perverse the death penalty has become in contemporary America. It is increasingly unpopular and indeed shunned by people of conscience. But paradoxically, this means that when executions are conducted, they are conducted by incompetent and even sleazy officials who end up committing torture.
Source: The Nation’s Facebook post .