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.

  • SlurpingPus
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    10 hours 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.

  • Felis_Catus_Domesticus
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    18 hours 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
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      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.

    • BradleyUffner
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      3 hours ago

      Frank Morris, and John and Clarence Anglin would disagree. It’s so rare though, that your point stands.

  • Gpennyhigh
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    18 hours 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.

    • GreyEyedGhost@piefed.ca
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      22 hours 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.

      • leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        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.

      • kossa@feddit.org
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        7 hours ago

        But it says cruel and unusual, not cruel or unusual. So, if it is a usual punishment, it can be as cruel as you want.

        Checkmate civilized world 😎.

        • Slashme
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          4 hours ago

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

  • ThunderComplex@lemmy.today
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    24 hours 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
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    23 hours ago

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

    • Slashme
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      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.

    • cloudshouter@lemmy.zip
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      18 hours 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.

    • VicVinegar
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      23 hours 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
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        21 hours 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?

          • Slashme
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            4 hours ago

            IMHO (not a philosopher or a lawyer), law is a branch of applied moral philosophy.

        • SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.social
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          20 hours ago

          If I remember correctly a guy tried to argue this in court a couple years ago after having a heart attack in jail and the judge ruled that since he was in court arguing his case he was still alive and the life sentence was still in effect.

          • glitch1985
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            Should have argued something about reincarnation and since he died it was now someone else.

    • Zak
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      18 hours 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.

    • someguy3
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      The intent of the death penalty is clear. I don’t think we’re gonna see any of this tv show type court stuff.

    • FenrirIII
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      So, if a murderer survives we just let them go? That’s fucking stupid

  • e8CArkcAuLE@piefed.social
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    how can someone be declared brain dead and then wake up the next day with no mayor neurological damage?
    were they trying to finish the job by disconnecting her from life support?

    • raspberriesareyummy
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      were they trying to finish the job by disconnecting her from life support?

      That’s what I was thinking as well. You don’t just miraculously wake up within a day from no brain activity measured. Someone intentionally manipulated a measurement or just skipped it.

    • Ariselas@piefed.ca
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      It’s the US, how does someone who is brain dead still have their job on the senate?

    • notabot@piefed.social
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      were they trying to finish the job by disconnecting her from life support?

      I’d imagine so, yes. Clean up the loose ends as it were. Trying, twice, to kill someone and having them still walking around is rather embarassing after all.

      • kossa@feddit.org
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        7 hours ago

        It’s the US. The only safe way to kill her is to send her into a child daycare or school and let the missiles do their job.

      • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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        “docs” prison system almost never use actual licensed professionals. nurses/docs arnt going to risk thier licensed being revoked, or the bad reputation they would get,.

      • Kirp123
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        The thing is that no doctors are involved in the executions. They take the Hippocratic Oath so they swear to not willingly do harm. The people doing these executions are usually prison staff that have no medical training.

        • Slashme
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          The Hippocratic oath also includes a promise not to perform surgery, and to leave that to surgeons:

          I will not use the knife, not even, verily, on sufferers from stone, but I will give place to such as are craftsmen therein.

          Gets broken every day.

          • Kirp123
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            That’s the original ancient oath. There are modernised versions. As of 2018, all US medical school graduates made some form of public oath but none used the original Hippocratic Oath. A modified form or an oath unique to that school is often used.

        • thesohoriots
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          It’s a guy named Vinny who dropped out of phlebotomy class, administering the frostbitten drugs kept in the back of the break room fridge in Snapple bottles, labeled “do NOt drINk”

        • edible_funk
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          17 hours ago

          The Hippocratic oath isn’t in any way binding or insurance companies would never be able to hire in house doctors.

    • homoludens@feddit.org
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      18 hours 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
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        7 hours 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.

  • 0li0li
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    20 hours 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.

    • kossa@feddit.org
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      7 hours 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? 😅

    • SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml
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      20 hours 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
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        4 hours 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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      19 hours ago

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

      • 0li0li
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        Isn’t that like drowning/suffocating? I was thinking instant death, be humain if you must kill someone.

  • ExtremeDullard@piefed.social
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    Witnesses present in the chamber said that “nothing was normal”

    As opposed to non-botched, routine state execution matinees they go to every Thursday.

    “Normal”?

    Nothing about this is normal, even if the woman had died in the expected manner.

    • notabot@piefed.social
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      Normal doesn’t mean right, it just means the same as usual, and they didn’t even hit that.

    • EliteCloneMike@lemmy.zip
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      Do the witnesses spend a lot of their free time watching people get executed enough to have a frame of reference?

        • EliteCloneMike@lemmy.zip
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          True. Even if they don’t know the process, everyone would expect the same outcome. Though the wording makes it sound like they had an understanding of the process itself. I’m probably either reading it wrong or reading too much into it.

  • OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml
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    10 hours ago

    Bullets are cheap, guillotine is cheap, hanging is cheap. I am pro death penalty. There are truly serious, vile, and wicked evil people in this world. Most of which the common person has no idea the atrocities people commit due to sheltering world views, news under reporting, evil doesn’t always get caught, insert reason here…

    However. They absolutely should not have done it this way, it’s absolutely ridiculous. Lethal injection is not a good execution method. It costs so much money to execute someone, and for zero reason when other methods are cost effective and more efficient. Life in prison is a major cost year over year and should be used in limited circumstances. This lady has health reasons that were ill considered for the type of execution attempted. Overall just a terrible situation.

    • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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      1-in-8 people sentenced to death are later exonerated. 4% of those executed were later proven innocent.

      I cannot accept executing innocent people as moral, no matter how bad the guilty parties are.

      • HuskerX@lemmy.zip
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        I don’t think any particular crime should warrant the death penalty. But it should be considered for those with a clear pattern of serious violent criminal behaviour, where rehabilitation has been tried but unsuccessful. For example multiple assaults, rapes and/or murders over a certain period of time, with prison terms served in between the crimes, where there has been attempts at rehabilitation, but these have failed to correct the criminals violent behaviour.

        • HubertManne@piefed.social
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          ok so how many? how many years served to rehabilitate? Also. Seriously. Do american prisons even try to rehabilitate? You know. Therapy. Education. Etc. What should be are minimum moral attempts to rehabilitate the person starting from the first crime?

      • OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml
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        The entire justice system is imperfect. I acknowledge that to a certain degree. Modern forensics has brought this much further than before. While I certainly don’t think everyone should be able to use the death penalty. I do not want to share the planet with people who commit atrocities against innocent. I entirely believe that some cases that are beyond probable should call for the death penalty. Let it be one of yours who get harmed, raped, unalived, tortured, or something horrible, I am not saying an average crime but some heinous. I bet you will change your mind. Depending on the case, inmates even kill child predators. We have so many molestors out on the streets just lookup a map of your local US area, its sickening. Repeat offenders at that. I don’t want these people sharing the same space as me. Period. Multiple convictions. Not one off cases.

        • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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          A lot of modern forensics is quack science and influenced by TV copaganda.

          70% of forensic evidence fails to be reproducible in blind tests, 80% of forensic labs lack a standardized review procedure, 75% of crime scenes are contaminated, 45% of police departments outsource their CSI, and even if you were to fix all that - forensic evidence is not a smoking gun, it is subject to interpretation - often by experts paid by the prosecutor for their desired outcome.

          Edit - see for yourself- is this person guilty or not?

        • DaTingGoBrrr@lemmy.ml
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          “The system is imperfect so there’s nothing we can do except accepting it 🤷”.

          Get the fuck out of here. Most of the civilized world does not have death row and we can still deal with violent criminals.

          The system being imperfect is a PERFECT reason to NOT have death row…

    • raspberriesareyummy
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      I am pro death penalty. There are truly serious, vile, and wicked evil people in this world.

      And without realising it, you have exposed yourself as one of these people.

      However, like them, you are not “vile and wicked evil”, you are broken. Some people are broken like that by biological defects, some by trauma, and some by slow development into a psychopath. Society needs to be protected from some of them, but we have no right to kill, because that would put us on the same level as you or the other psychopaths.

      • OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml
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        Not broken. Not a psychopath. Your telling me the videos of houthis, or insert your own videos online of people machete chopping up innocents, shooting, or otherwise murdering people and raising morale of their like kind doesn’t call for the death penalty. Insane. It happens across the globe and there is no repercussions for most. Sorry but I’ve seen the vile that happens from truly evil people. I don’t want to sit down to eat and worry that one of those people could walk in, sit beside me or cook my food. While this is one case. I do understand that cases are highly nuanced. None the less. Get them gone. Their ticket should be revoked. Crimes against humanity.

    • DaTingGoBrrr@lemmy.ml
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      You shouldn’t have death row at all. There has been and will be even more innocent people getting wrongly executed. You cannot guarantee that every single person getting executed is guilty.

      • conquer4
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        4 hours ago

        In this day and age of cameras everywhere and dna testing. Yes, you can 100% guarantee that some people have committed the crime. The problem become between ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ and 100%. Examples: Gary Ridgeway, Ted Bundy, Ed Gein. (But hey, according to you they might be innocent, let’s give them a standard of living better than the poor in our society)

        • DaTingGoBrrr@lemmy.ml
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          First of all, the fact that American prisoners have it better than poor in your society speaks volumes about how fucked up your society is. This shouldn’t be the case in the first place and has nothing to do with Death Row.

          Secondly, you cannot take back a murder. Simple as that. Innocent people will get executed.

          Thirdly, Anders Breivik in Norway will not be executed and he shouldn’t be. He should be left to rot without ever being freedom again. Just killing someone just lets them off easily.

        • OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml
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          I feel that some of these people have not seen the horrors posted online for morale boosting of serious crimes and their conspirators. Go ask all the veterans what they see over seas from any country, take your pick. Suicide car people are often not extremists in the sense you might think shown on the news. Their often innocent people chained into rigged cars and forced to drive into convoys. People are sick. These are not people who I want sharing my life along side.

          We have modern tech. It helps tremendously to curb innocent death penalty cases. An imperfect system overall in every justice system across the globe. No pro death penalty person wants an innocent to be hurt. I agree with that aspect of pro life people entirely. But truly verified guilty people. Let them go feed the soil. That is more productive than the acts they commit.

          • DaTingGoBrrr@lemmy.ml
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            What is the bar for someone being truly guilty? And how would you 100% make sure that no innocent person would ever fall victim for death row?

            Because as the law is written today, innocent people are getting murdered.

            How could you prove, without a reason of a doubt, that a person was not set up for a crime they did not commit?

    • Stern
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      Life in prison is cheaper then the death penalty by a wide margin owing to the numerous safeguards in place (e.g. mandatory appeals.) to ensure we murder folks who deserve it.

      Beyond that, the death penalty doesn’t work as a crime deterrant, murder rates in death penalty states track higher then abolitionist ones.

      Lastly, someone getting put to death gains minor celebrity during it, offering a perverse incentive to the especially vile, while life in jail is just quiet fading to nothing over time and maybe a paragraph after they die saying they’re dead. Certainly not the news cycle Pike has gotten.

      I could see the death penalty in limited circumstances like the Nuremberg trials, but for someone like Pike, Charles Manson, or whoever? Let 'em rot.

      • OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml
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        The death penalty is no where close to the cost to house, feed, and medical for an inmate. Last I looked the average cost to house an inmate was roughly 70k USD a year. Now multiply that year over year over long sentences. It’s millions not 6 figures it takes to execute someone. Which IMO is far too high to begin with for an exercution. There are far cheaper, faster, more effective alternatives.

        • Stern
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          Not sure where you’re getting your info from but even pursuing the death penalty is a massive upfront cost involving expert witnesses and whole teams of attorneys on both sides, then each mandatory appeal on state and federal level just adds to that, not to mention the extra cost for simply housing prisoners in death row in their extra secure cellblocks.

          By the time someone actually gets executed, it’ll have been decades of all this extra cost. Pike did her crime at 18, she’s 50 now. The death penalty is a ineffective waste of money.