Execution Botched In Tennessee

Above, Bela Lugosi as Ygor in Son of Frankenstein. Universal Pictures.

The botched execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee was described as "unprecedented" after two tries.

According to an article in the Associated Press:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Christa Pike was in critical condition Thursday and receiving “lifesaving care” at a hospital, her lawyers said, a day after a failed attempt to execute her pushed Tennessee’s governor to halt further executions this year and order an independent review.

Pike, who was sentenced to death for a 1995 murder, was taken to a hospital Wednesday night after surviving a double dose of the drug Tennessee uses to execute prisoners.

“We don’t have a sense of her prognosis or much update on her health at the moment,” attorney Randy Spivey said during a news conference. “But we know she is alive right now.”

The failed execution, which one death penalty expert described as unprecedented, led Republican Gov. Bill Lee to order a review, calling what happened “deeply disturbing” and indefinitely postponing Pike’s execution and another one that had been scheduled for this year. It also reignited the debate over the state’s execution procedures, including its single-drug lethal injections.

I can only think of one other prisoner who survived his execution: old Ygor (Bela Lugosi) in Son of Frankenstein and Ghost of Frankenstein. He was hanged but the hanging only broke and distorted his neck.

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