Pike’s lawyers said she is back in same prison she’s lived in for last 30 years and will continue to receive medical care

Christa Pike has been discharged from the hospital after surviving Tennessee’s botched 30 September attempt to execute her by lethal injection and is back in prison, her lawyers said on Saturday.

Saturday’s update about Pike came 10 days after the death row prisoner was given two doses of pentobarbital, a lethal injection drug, in what proved to be a failed execution attempt. She was hospitalized after surviving the botched execution and was declared brain dead on Monday.

But in a shocking turnaround, on Thursday her lawyer said that she was “up and walking” – though she remained “somewhat foggy” and wasn’t able to use her arms very much.

Pike said that her arms were burning during the failed execution and asked if it was supposed to feel that way. Witnesses present in the chamber said that “nothing was normal” while officials have maintained that they followed every step of Tennessee’s approved execution protocol.

    • homoludens@feddit.org
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      15 days ago

      The US justice system is making me feel bad for a murderer. I’m not sure it’s what they’re trying to achieve, but it’s certainly an achievement.

      • DaveyRocket@lemmy.world
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        15 days ago

        I hardly care about her single murder when a girls’ school can be bombed and no one is held accountable. She was just barely an adult and all her time before that was a hellish childhood, there’s some understanding one could have for her, but the same nation can just murder little girls and no one is responsible. Let her go, kill the child killers and child rapers.

    • GreyEyedGhost@piefed.ca
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      16 days ago

      Much of what I’ve read about the American prison system would qualify as cruel and unusual punishment. The same applies to the Canadian system more than I’d like to admit.

      • kossa@feddit.org
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        15 days ago

        But it says cruel and unusual, not cruel or unusual. So, if it is a usual punishment, it does not qualify.

        Checkmate civilized world 😎.

        • Slashme@lemmy.world
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          15 days ago

          And honestly, if it isn’t cruel, will the average American consider it a punishment at all?

          • Soggy@lemmy.world
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            15 days ago

            What being raised in a death cult that promises eternal suffering does to a motherfucker.

      • leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        15 days ago

        I think it’s reached the point in the USA where it’s most definitely cruel (which as always with conservatives, is the whole point), but can’t really be called unusual given that it’s become the norm in that miserable shithole.

  • Felis_Catus_Domesticus@lemmy.world
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    15 days ago

    life imprisonment has a 100% success rate.

    No one has ever survived.

    That’s got to cost less for the taxpayers than the legal shitstorm that’s going to follow in the wake of this incident.

    .

    • PhoenixDog@lemmy.world
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      15 days ago

      Yeah but then you don’t get the blood thirsty pro-life conservatives who froth at the mouth to kill anyone not in utero frothing at the mouth waiting for others to die.

      These are the same people who don’t want socialized healthcare, regardless on how much more cost effective it is at both a personal level and a government level.

  • ThunderComplex@lemmy.today
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    16 days ago

    Imagine how weird it must be to see your prison friend finally get shipped off to death row, have a sad goodbye, prepare yourself for life without her, and then she just casually walks back into prison.

  • GuyFawkesV@lemmy.world
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    16 days ago

    If at any point she died and was brought back I foresee an interesting legal argument to her being set free.

    • VicVinegar@lemmy.world
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      16 days ago

      I’ve heard this is why death sentences state “hanged by the neck until dead.” Someone survived a hanging at one point and successfully argued that their sentence had been carried out, so they could not be hanged again. I read about it years ago, I don’t remember details. All this is to say she might not be able to make that point. Either way, you’re right. It’s gonna be interesting.

      • OldChicoAle@lemmy.world
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        16 days ago

        But can you legally die and then be revived? Like say someone’s heart stopped for 30 seconds and then they came back to?

    • cloudshouter@lemmy.zip
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      16 days ago

      Not really. Despite the tails you hear about people saying they were dead and came back after seeing heaven, and saying stuff like they had a heart attack and died three times on the way to the hospital, those aren’t dead. Do you think any of those cases would be willing to send all their stuff off to whoever is inheriting it? The laws know this and the sentence is not going away on a gotcha. Otherwise people with life sentences or on death row would be trying to give themselves survivable heart attacks all the time. Not a fan of the justice system or the death penalty in general, but this lady is there for a good reason. It may functionally turn into a life sentence but they sure aren’t letting her go free.

    • someguy3@lemmy.world
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      16 days ago

      The intent of the death penalty is clear. I don’t think we’re gonna see any of this tv show type court stuff.

    • Zak@lemmy.world
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      15 days ago

      Judges usually don’t like tricks like trying to argue a definition of death in which the person is alive afterward. It wouldn’t be accepted in the other direction either; an assailant whose victim is alive is not guilty of murder.

      There are certainly legal arguments against trying to execute her again, but if one succeeds, the outcome will be life in prison, not release.

    • Slashme@lemmy.world
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      15 days ago

      I read that at some point in hospital she was declared brain dead, which surprised me, because normally that’s not a temporary condition, but in the BBC article they just say “Her legal team believed for days that she was brain dead and expected her to be taken off life support at any moment.”, which is not the same thing.

  • Gpennyhigh@lemmy.world
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    15 days ago

    The prison system is so rotten and corrupt to enrich the few and hurt many. The number of people in prison is deplorable and a sign that the system is rotten to have so many. We can see what helps people out of poverty and crimes and deaths of desperation, but do the opposite too often, so this is the result of that. Unhealthy systems produce unhealthy society and people. All this suffering to enrich industries related to prisons too, like all the concentration camps and supporting businesses in on the violent grift. This is the sickness of doubling down on unhealthy ways.

  • SlurpingPus@lemmy.world
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    15 days ago

    Pike said that her arms were burning during the failed execution and asked if it was supposed to feel that way.

    That’s a sign of the injection going a wrong way, namely somewhere else than the vein where it probably was supposed to be. Idk if it happens with just any intravenous injections, but I got exactly that feeling when mine didn’t go into the vein.

  • 0li0li@lemmy.world
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    16 days ago

    As much as I oppose capital punishment, if you guys have to do it, why not use something that’s a guaranteed kill? IDK, a super fast head crushing machine or something.

    • SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml
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      16 days ago

      Because the chemical execution method isn’t to ensure the swift, painless death of the accused, it’s to soothe the psyche of the executioner

      • Slashme@lemmy.world
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        15 days ago

        Welcome to the Hydraulic Press Channel. Today we are going to test the head-crusher six thousand.

    • daq@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      16 days ago

      There’s exactly 0 reasons not to use nitrogen for death penalty. Guaranteed death every time.

      • 0li0li@lemmy.world
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        15 days ago

        Isn’t that like drowning/suffocating? I was thinking instant death, be humain if you must kill someone.

        • philipp_@discuss.tchncs.de
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          14 days ago

          Monoxide is the one that is dangerous because it makes you sleepy and then you die in your sleep. Dioxide is the one that feels like suffocating (because it’s literally the same. Your lungs can no longer get rid of the CO2 in your body and that’s very painful to us).

    • kossa@feddit.org
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      15 days ago

      Of all the proven ways to end a life quickly and (for all we know) relatively painless that is what you came up with? 😅

  • Thor_Whale@lemmus.org
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    15 days ago

    I mean part of me says let her go because she’s already been executed and didn’t die so there’s that. However she also horrifically murdered somebody so part of me says walk her out to a cliff and push her off. If they did let her go she would have to wear an ankle monitor at all times and subject herself to drug tests daily.