How Common Are Botched Executions? Here's What the Data Shows
The failed lethal injection was Tennessee’s second botched execution this year, and researchers say 276 of 8,776 executions studied were botched.
- Death row inmate Christa Pike survived a failed execution Wednesday in Tennessee after officials administered two doses of pentobarbital; she remained breathing and was transported by ambulance from the prison.
- This incident marks the second botched execution in Tennessee this year, following Tony Carruthers' failed lethal injection in May when officials could not secure a backup IV line required by protocol.
- Austin Sarat, a professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College, defines botched executions as involving unanticipated problems causing unnecessary suffering. The Death Penalty Information Center tracks such incidents since 1982.
- The Death Penalty Information Center lists 64 executions or attempted executions since 1982, with 51 involving lethal injection. Sarat identifies this method as having the highest rate of botched attempts among all execution methods.
- Sarat found 276 botched executions out of 8,776 cases examined between 1890 and 2010, yet no previous instance matched Pike's circumstances of surviving two lethal doses—making her case historically unprecedented.
73 Articles
73 Articles
Malay Mail
Female US inmate in critical condition after botched execution
WASHINGTON, Oct 2 — A condemned female murderer who survived two lethal injections during a botched execution by the US state of Tennessee was in critical condition and receiving...
An American survivor of the death penalty, Krista Pike, is in critical condition
An American survivor of the death penalty, Krista Pike, is in critical condition.Her lawyer said that the woman was in a hospital near the prison where the sentence was to be carried out. "Krista is currently alive. We have no understanding of the...
Convicted killer Christa Pike survived two lethal injection doses and seven needs in a horrific death chamber ordeal, her lawyer says
Sydney Morning Herald
PressNewsAgencyHow Christa Pike’s botched Tennessee execution unfolded, minute by minute
Pike, now 50, was 18 when she committed the murder and would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. But instead she survived two doses of the pentobarbital meant to kill her. She left the prison in an ambulance instead of a hearse.
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