What went wrong with the Christa Pike execution attempt in Tennessee?
Pike received two rounds of lethal injections, but somehow survived.
The Tennessee Department of Correction is currently under the national, and global, spotlight following a botched execution . Christa Pike was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on September 30, but she somehow survived .
The TDOC has defended its methods, which were administering two rounds of a lethal dose of the highly potent sedative Pentobarbital . That wasn't enough, apparently, as her heart kept beating despite her feeling a "burning and hurting" sensation .
The TDOC says " the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening ", so they did not administer any additional injections after the two rounds. Naturally, people are wondering how exactly this could have happened, as it's almost unprecedented.
Christa Pike likely didn't reach the necessary level of pentobarbital in her blood to cause death
There still hasn't been an official explanation for why the two doses failed to complete the job . BBC spoke with Dr. Joel Zivot of Emory University School of Medicine, who says that " she probably never achieved a sufficient blood level of pentobarbital to cause apnea and cardiovascular failure ".
There's really only one other similar situation of a failed lethal injection. The Alabama Department of Corrections failed to execute Doyle Hamm in 2018. They couldn't get access to his veins to administer the lethal injection, due to Hamm having developed lymphatic cancer while on death row.
