Thoughts on the Botched Execution of Christa Pike

by Lauren Pope

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For the second time this year, the state of Tennessee has tried and failed to execute one of its citizens.

In May, its execution team members failed to establish a central line in Tony Carruthers after over two hours and over a dozen sticks. Yesterday, they injected both vials of pentobarbital into Christa Pike, but after over an hour she remained alive. In their petition to the US Supreme Court, Pike’s lawyers had raised concerns that the condition of her veins combined with a clotting disorder that she suffers from could cause complications during the execution process. That concern was ignored.Death Penalty Action is in regular pen-pal contact with many people on death row, including Tony Carruthers. When the news broke of Pike’s botched execution, he sent one word to the team.“Tortured!!”

That accurately describes the physical assault on her body yesterday evening, but also the mental pain that both Christa, the parents of the victim, and everyone else invested in the story experienced yesterday as we waited for hours to hear if the execution would go forward at all.

Christa had been scheduled to be executed in the morning, but before the procedure could begin, the Sixth Circuit issued a stay so that it could properly examine her claim that the extreme and ongoing sexual assault she suffered for her entire childhood, beginning at only 18 months, should have been taken into account during her sentencing.The Supreme Court, in an end of day decision, lifted that stay in a 6-3 decision, allowing the execution to move forward.

Writing in her dissent, Justice Sotomayor said:

“The Court’s decision to vacate that stay interferes with the Sixth Circuit’s routine administrative handling of a capital case and unnecessarily prevents that court from giving due consideration to Pike’s claim. Worse, the Court grants such extraordinary relief solely to allow the State to execute Pike before litigation over her conviction has properly run its course in the lower courts. I see no reason to shortcircuit the ordinary process of appellate review, particularly in light of the grave consequences of an erroneous decision. Tennessee’s desire to expedite Pike’s execution by a few days or even weeks cannot outweigh her “fundamental interest in [her] own life.” Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U. S. 1, 9 (1985).”

We increasingly see the desires and demands of the State prioritized over the fundamental rights of its citizens. This is increasingly frightening at a time when the State has also given itself unprecedented ability to surveil us with Flock cameras and detain us using squads of unmarked, untrained agents.

The botched execution of Christa Pike is in some ways a perfect encapsulation of our current government: incompetent, cruel, and power-hungry.