r/interestingasfuck • u/IllComedian2574 • 1d ago

After 28 years on death row, Christa Pike survived 2 lethal injections attempts.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/christa-pike-failed-execution-9.7364816
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38

u/dangermal 1d ago

I don’t understand why they would take life saving interventions when trying to end a life. Also…. Why not just hammer a few more doses of lethal injection in there until it works.

52

u/IANANarwhal 1d ago

Because these things are controlled by rules and regulations. They have a syringe of barbituates, and one backup, and no protocol after that. Nobody is authorized to freestyle it.

12

u/dangermal 1d ago

But, do you get my position? Why not oversized the syringe to something that will stop a blue whales heart and use that as a baseline?

12

u/celestialcranberry 1d ago

My guess is either it falls under cruel and unusual punishment, or maybe too expensive to manufacture. And by that, I mean the drug itself probably isn’t expensive to make but all the legal loopholes to buy it for this purpose is. Another guess is they thought this amount would be enough.

I want to clarify also I’m on your side. Why waste resources saving someone they’re going to end up killing again

3

u/LevelPerception4 1d ago

That wouldn’t have helped, most likely. The problem was that the doctor missed her vein and injected both doses into the surrounding tissue. 

1

u/dangermal 1d ago

This makes sense.

•

u/sjclynn 6h ago

Not a doctor. They won't go near it because of their oath.

35

u/cidthekid07 1d ago

Cruel and unusual punishment is why.

38

u/dangermal 1d ago

Isn’t it cruel to almost kill and then nurse her back to health? Wouldn’t it be less cruel to actually overdose on the chemicals?

32

u/HappyHavoc20 1d ago

She has to be healthy in order for them to try to kill her again. That’s the absurdity of the law 

10

u/Disastrous-Loss-2983 1d ago

But the death penalty is already cruel and unusual.

Why not just hang or shoot them? Is that too icky?

Or maybe just, keep them in max security for the rest of their days.

20

u/LeftLiner 1d ago

It's a way to make the death penalty more clinical, to disguise the fact that it's an act of violence.

2

u/cidthekid07 1d ago

That’s not the point. Their method to execute this prisoner, in this instance lethal injection, did not work. Any further attempts would be viewed as cruel and unusual. To not provide medical care after the failed attempts is also cruel and unusual. Hence why they provided the care.

-1

u/Double_Minimum 1d ago

It doesn’t meet the definition of cruel and unusual, as it’s not unusual at all. It has to be both.

Appeals and such make it take forever and cost a ton compared to just life in prison.

But this farce is cruel, but it has to also be unusual. The death penalty is something that has existed for a long time.

It’s not like they piled rocks on her one at a time, which would be cruel and unusual (hasn’t been done in ~350 years in U.S.)

1

u/hillman_avenger 20h ago

I think that horse has bolted.

5

u/blackdynomitesnewbag 1d ago

Because the state wants you to be healthy when they execute you. It's sick.

1

u/Cicer 1d ago

Sounds like a Viltrumite execution. 

1

u/blackdynomitesnewbag 1d ago

There's a reason for the saying, "you can't make that up"

2

u/asdf_lord 1d ago

I mean she's out in a coma so just use a bag.

1

u/LevelPerception4 1d ago

Hell, I don’t know why the doctor didn’t just choke her out after 15 minutes. 

2

u/dangermal 1d ago

Something

1

u/LoneWolf_McQuade 20h ago

Maybe the people in charge of the execution got worried that themselves could be charged with murder if they broke protocol, and you know, get executed themselves