Christa Pike’s failed execution sparks calls for controversial death penalty method
The failure of the State of Tennessee to execute Christa Pike by lethal injection has led to calls from some politicians to bring back the firing squad.
Pike, 50, has been hospitalised following her botched execution attempt as the woman the state was trying to kill then underwent life-saving measures after she was administered the double dose of a deadly chemical but did not die.
Congressman Tim Burchett has called for state lawmakers to give the firing squad the go-ahead, arguing it was 'a hundred percent effective' as a method of execution and adding 'it's that or hanging'.
Since Pike's failed execution some politicians in Tennessee have suggested they may look at other methods of execution in the future, including the firing squad or the electric chair.
Advert
Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton told Fox 17: "That may be a possibility in the future. So, we're going to look at all alternatives, and we're going to look at all 50 states to see what they do but we're going to come up with solutions to this situation."
Sexton also suggested that 'maybe even that we remove lethal injection' as an execution method.
There have been several botched executions in Tennessee in recent years, and the state's prisons chief has resigned from his role after the failed execution of Christa Pike.
Frank Strada had been the commissioner of Tennessee's Department of Correction for three years, during which time there were the botched attempts to execute Pike and Tony Carruthers by lethal injection.
The firing squad is a very rare method of execution, until Brad Sigmon was executed by one last year in South Carolina there had been no firing squad executions in the US since 2001.
Shortly afterwards fellow South Carolina inmate Mikal Mahdi was executed by firing squad and there were accusations that the executioners 'botched' it as his attorneys argued that he was shot lower than intended and the bullets hit him in the abdomen rather than the heart.
They also alleged that Mahdi wasn't pronounced dead until four minutes after he'd been shot.
South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) 'strongly refuted' the claims and insisted all three bullets 'struck Mahdi’s heart', but the firing squad remains as controversial an execution method as the rest of the ways of carrying out the death penalty.
Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah are currently the only US states that use the firing squad to carry out a death penalty.
What happens in the future for Christa Pike remains to be seen but her former lawyer James Crowson told LADbible that if the failed execution attempt has caused brain damage to the 50-year-old and 'she doesn't know what's going on' then there won't be a second attempt.
The lawyer explained that executions are banned if an inmate is mentally incompetent and doesn't understand the reason why they're being put to death
Crowson also argued against the death penalty in general, saying: "Nobody, certainly not Christa Pike and not even the state of Tennessee, should be allowed to take someone’s life.
"The outcome of this attempted execution shows it’s difficult to walk the fine line between properly punishing someone who did something horrific and not violating the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment."
Tennessee has put all scheduled executions on pause for the time being.
Joe Harker