Botched lethal injection of Christa Pike raises questions about execution protocols

An execution attempt on death-row inmate Christa Pike failed, leaving her alive after the lethal injection protocol was administered. The incident has been described as the most severe botched execution in modern U.S. history.

Bioethicist M. Sara Rosenthal argues that the legal and medical dimensions of the case are now on a collision course, and suggests the episode could signal the end of lethal injection as it is currently practiced.

The article notes that roughly 7,000 people were executed between 1900 and 1976 and 1,683 since then, with women comprising only about 0.6% of those executed. Pike is the second woman on death row, and the Supreme Court declined to intervene.

Rosenthal also references the 1953 failed electric-chair execution of Ethel Rosenberg, highlighting a historical precedent for execution methods that malfunctioned, underscoring the need for a reassessment of capital-punishment protocols.