Botched executions are nothing new in US history.
asserted
executions → botch → history
In the era when hangings were common, some condemned people were decapitated.
asserted
people → condemn → era
Later, when the electric chair was in vogue, every now and again, someone would catch fire during an electrocution.
asserted
someone → catch → electrocution
And nitrogen hypoxia, the US’s newest execution method, has already proven notoriously unreliable.
asserted
hypoxia → prove → ?
But, of all of the ways we have tried to execute people, lethal injection has the worst track record.
asserted
injection → try → record
More than 8% of all lethal injection executions have been botched.
asserted
% → botch → executions
Most of them resulted when those charged with carrying them out could not find a usable vein.
uncertain
those → result → vein
Last night, we entered uncharted territory when Christa Pike survived Tennessee’s effort to execute her with lethal doses of pentobarbital.
asserted
Pike → enter → pentobarbital
It was the first time someone received a drug intended to kill them but did not die.
asserted
someone → receive → them
Robin Maher, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, told the New York Times: “This event is the worst we’ve seen and unlike any other botched execution in the modern era …
asserted
we → tell → era
Moreover, there is almost no precedent for what should happen next.
asserted
what → be → ?
Whatever fate awaits Christa Pike, one thing is clear.
asserted
thing → await → Pike
The state of Tennessee should not be allowed to try to execute her again.
asserted
state → allow → her
Beyond that, it is time to give up on the fantasy that this country will ever be able to find an execution technology that is safe, reliable and humane.
asserted
that → give → technology
We have not found one yet, and we never will.
What happened to Pike was gruesome.
asserted
happened → find → Pike
No one deserves what she went through, not even those who commit horrible crimes.
asserted
who → deserve → crimes
Pike was sent to death row for one such crime.
asserted
Pike → send → crime
The Tennessean describes her crime this way.
asserted
Tennessean → describe → crime
“Pike lured Slemmer to a wooded area near the University of Tennessee’s Agricultural Campus with the promise of marijuana.
asserted
Pike → lure → marijuana
With the help of … [her boyfriend], Pike tortured Slemmer before beating her to death with a chunk of asphalt.
asserted
Pike → torture → asphalt
A pentagram was also carved into her body.
asserted
pentagram → carve → body
As the date of her execution drew near, Pike claimed that it should not go forward, because using lethal injection on her would be cruel.
asserted
using → draw → her
Little did she know what would be in store for her.
asserted
what → know → her
As allowed by its execution protocol, state officials in Tennessee administered two doses of pentobarbital that were supposed to be enough to end her life.
asserted
that → allow → life
However, as NBC notes, instead of killing her, it left her “snoring” and complaining about pain, as well as “kicking her feet so often that she knocked off the sheets laid on her”.
asserted
she → note → her
After the Tennessee governor, Bill Lee, was contacted, he authorized the execution team to stand down, and Pike was taken to a hospital.
asserted
Pike → contact → hospital
This is not the first time that Lee has received a call about an execution gone awry.
asserted
Lee → receive → execution
In May, he had also agreed to stop the execution of Tony Carruthers when officials couldn’t find a vein for a backup IV.
uncertain
officials → agree → IV
Lee granted him a one-year reprieve.
asserted
Lee → grant → reprieve
Now he and his colleagues in Tennessee will have to decide what to do about Pike.
asserted
he → have → Pike
So far, he has only called a halt to the one other execution scheduled in the state this year and ordered a review of what happened during Pike’s execution.
asserted
what → call → execution
The last time someone survived when a method of execution that was supposed to kill them failed to do so was in 1946, when Louisiana tried to put a man named Willie Francis to death in the electric chair.
asserted
Louisiana → survive → chair
Francis survived because the electric chair malfunctioned and the current wasn’t strong enough to kill him.
asserted
current → survive → him
He sued the state to prevent it from trying again.
asserted
He → sue → it
The United States supreme court allowed Louisiana to put him in the electric chair again.
asserted
Louisiana → allow → chair
Writing for the court, Justice Stanley Reed said: “Even the fact that petitioner has already been subjected to a current of electricity does not make his subsequent execution any more cruel in the constitutional sense than any other execution …
asserted
execution → write → execution
The fact that an unforeseeable accident prevented the prompt consummation of the sentence cannot, it seems to us, add an element of cruelty to a subsequent execution.”
asserted
it → prevent → execution
Francis was executed soon after.
asserted
Francis → execute → ?
Since then, many other executions have been botched, but few have lived to tell about them.
asserted
few → botch → them
Between 1946 and today, that has happened only nine other times, including with Pike.
asserted
that → happen → Pike
…and 12 more, not listed.
The Aporia
