The reason Christa Pike might not face execution again after failed lethal injection

After death row inmate Christa Pike survived her lethal injection, the one big question everyone has had is: What happens now? Right now, it’s not clear if she will face a second execution, but there are some strong reasons why she might not. 

Pike was set to be the first woman in Tennessee to be executed in over 200 years, but despite two shots of the injection being administered, she survived. After her failed execution, at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, Christa Pike was rushed to hospital. 

In the most recent update about her condition, it was said that Pike remains on a ventilator and has not regained consciousness. Her lawyer, Stephen Ferrell, told CNN that we may not know for several more days whether or not she will ever recover, as her condition “remains the same” since when she first arrived in hospital.

via Tennessee Department of Correction

He added she “may not fully recover” and a long-term prognosis remains “up in the air”. If Pike does recover, her lawyer said “there may be issues about her competence”.

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Legal experts have now said that unless she makes a full recovery, which at this point seems unlikely, it’s also unlikely the state will try to execute her again. That again comes back to the argument of competence. 

“She can’t be executed if she is brain injured and doesn’t understand the proceedings,” Professor Deborah Denno of the Fordham School of Law told The New York Post.

“The United States Supreme Court recognised in a case involving a dementia patient in 2019 that you can’t execute someone who’s not aware of the punishment that they’re going to receive.”

So, whether or not Christa Pike faces a second execution attempt will most likely highly come down to how much of a recovery her brain does, following the first. 

For more, like The Tab on Facebook. Featured image via Tennessee Department of Correction.