For the first time in medical and legal history, a prisoner has “survived a complete execution attempt in the U.S.” According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Christa Pike’s failed execution was “the worst we’ve seen and unlike any other botched execution in the modern era (since 1976). There is no precedent.” This game-changing bioethics case may even end lethal injection.
About 7,000 people were executed in the U.S. between 1900 and 1976, and 1,683 people after 1976. Ultimately, since 1900, only 0.6% (55) have been women. Pike is now the second woman on death row the U.S. Supreme Court declined to rescue from a botched execution.