Christa Pike — the only woman on Tennessee's death row — has been discharged from hospital and sent back to prison after surviving the state's attempt to execute her by lethal injection on September 30, her attorneys say.
The execution attempt failed, and Pike required hospital treatment. Now recovered, she returns to a cell and a legal limbo: the state still holds a death warrant, her lawyers still fight it, and the failed procedure itself raises questions courts have barely begun to answer.
Botched executions force the question abolitionists and supporters both dodge: what does the state owe someone it tried — and failed — to kill? The answer will be litigated for years, and Pike's case is now the sharpest example in America.
Sources: CBC News. Context from the Young Hadene newsroom.
The only woman on Tennessee's death row, whose Sept. 30 execution by lethal injection failed.
Back in prison after hospital discharge, according to her attorneys.