US convicted murderer Christa Pike is in hospital and being given "life-saving measures" after Tennessee authorities failed in their attempt to execute her by lethal injection.
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Tennessee suspende execuções depois que condenada à pena de morte Christa Pike sobrevive à sua. Publicado há 10 minutos.
Legenda da figura, O que sabemos depois que Christa Pike sobreviveu a duas injeções letais.
The case of Pike, whose attempted execution had already been the subject of a high-profile legal battle, has raised a number of questions.
These include what went wrong, what happens next, and - for opponents of the death penalty - fresh concerns around the suffering of an inmate when an execution does not go to plan.
Uma revisão sobre o que aconteceu foi ordenada e as execuções no Tennessee foram suspensas pelo resto do ano, disse o governador Bill Lee.
Pike, 50, foi condenado à morte em 1996 pelo assassinato de Colleen Slemmer, de 19 anos, um ataque que foi perpetrado junto com seu então namorado Tadaryl Shipp.
She was scheduled to be put to death on Wednesday evening, local time. The injections were allowed by the US Supreme Court at the eleventh hour after the legal battle.
Pike was given two syringes of the drug pentobarbital, though her legal team said these failed to stop her heartbeat and that she could still be heard snoring.
Figure caption, Watch: Witnesses recount Christa Pike's failed execution attempt.
O Departamento de Correção do Tennessee defendeu o método que utilizou, dizendo "o protocolo não permite procedimentos adicionais além do que foi realizado esta noite.
O protocolo estadual não especifica claramente o que deve acontecer se um preso permanecer vivo após a segunda dose, segundo a agência de notícias AP.
Authorities have yet to provide their explanation of why the dosage given to Pike proved to be non-fatal, although medical experts have provided theories of their own.
Dr Joel Zivot, a professor at the Emory University School of Medicine, told the BBC he had been retained by Pike's legal team as a medical expert and that Pike probably never achieved a sufficient blood level of pentobarbital to cause her breath to stop or heart failure.
O Departamento Estadual de Correções acrescentou que Pike havia sido levado a uma instalação médica fora do local.
One of her lawyers said she was "being provided life-saving measures" in hospital.
Her health status is unclear as of Thursday morning.
Em seus comentários por e-mail ao BBC, Zivot disse: “É muito possível que, como consequência do atraso no início da ressuscitação, ela tenha uma lesão cerebral.”.
A third-party review has been ordered by state Governor Bill Lee, who said on Thursday that Tennessee will halt executions for the rest of the year.
This could impact any additional attempt by the state to execute Pike in the near-term, if she does regain consciousness. Her current state is not clear.
May Martinez, a mãe de Colleen Slemmer, que havia pressionado para que a execução de Pike fosse realizada, disse à NBC News que os eventos foram “um desastre”.
Image source, Family handoutImage caption, Colleen Slemmer was tortured and brutally killed by Pike and her boyfriend.
Opponents of the death penalty have similarly been quick to react.
Maya Foa, diretora executiva da organização jurídica internacional Reprieve, disse: "Não podemos saber exatamente o que deu errado, porque muito aconteceu por trás de um véu – a injeção letal depende do segredo em cada etapa, para ocultar a violência do Estado ao tirar uma vida humana.
Authorities are yet to say whether they will try again to execute Pike. There is a historical precedent of authorities making a second attempt to execute those on death row.
Meanwhile Shipp, Pike's boyfriend and co-defendant, remains in prison, having been spared the death penalty under state law. He was 17 at the time that Slemmer was killed.
Pentobarbital is a potent sedative that slows down the body, including the nervous system. Doctors sometimes use it as a treatment for certain conditions, but in high doses it can also be used as a lethal injection to cause death.
Seu uso em injeções letais passou por uma nova análise no ano passado, depois que uma revisão do governo federal dos EUA, realizada sob a presidência de Joe Biden, levantou preocupações sobre o potencial do medicamento para “unnecessary pain and suffering”.
His government banned its use in federal executions but that did not bind individual states such as Tennessee, which can choose their own methods.
In recent years, states have found some drugs needed for lethal injections harder to come by, because pharmaceutical companies have opposed the use of their products for such purposes.
The Tennessee Department of Correction has not specifically addressed an allegation from Pike's legal team that the pentobarbital it used was "degraded". Drugs may degrade for a number of reasons, including if it has aged beyond its use-by date and its potency has decreased.
O departamento emitiu uma defesa mais ampla de seu método, escrevendo em uma declaração: 'O químico de injeção letal no protocolo tem sido consistentemente eficaz.
Some manufacturers have explicitly said they will no longer produce pentobarbital or will restrict their use in executions, according to Alexis Hoag-Fordjor, Co-Director of the Center for Criminal Justice at Brooklyn Law School.
Em 2024, por exemplo, o fabricante Absolute Standards disse que não produziria mais o medicamento.
It's unclear, the quality and the effectiveness of the drug" used in Pike's execution, Hoag-Fordjor told the BBC, given how difficult it has been for states like Tennessee to obtain pentobarbital.
It shouldn't be a surprise something went wrong.
The predicament Tennessee authorities found themselves in - having to call emergency medical services to save Pike after trying to kill her - suggested there was "no plan in place" for a scenario like Pike's, Hoag-Fordjor said.
É apenas uma realidade tão bizarra continuar com a pena de morte.
A execução tentativa de Pike não foi a primeira no Tennessee em 2026 que não seguiu o plano.
The execution of Tony Carruthers, who was convicted of kidnapping and murdering three people in 1994, was postponed in May after staff were unable to find a vein to administer a lethal injection.
He was given a one-year reprieve by Governor Bill Lee.
Em todo o território dos EUA, a questão das execuções mal conduzidas continua a causar alarme.
In 2022, more than a third of executions in the US were botched or highly problematic, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPI) - an organisation that provides statistics and research on the death penalty but does not take a stance on it morally.
The DPI says lethal injection has the highest rate of botched executions.
An incident in Oklahoma in 2014 gained particular notoriety. The execution of Clayton Lockett was postponed after 20 minutes because the lethal injection of three drugs failed to work properly when one of his veins ruptured, and he went on to writhe and shake uncontrollably.
Nos EUA, 27 dos 50 estados têm a pena de morte sob a lei estadual. O governo federal também pode executar execuções após o presidente Donald Trump, um defensor da pena de morte, ter encerrado uma moratória no ano passado; no entanto, ainda não realizou nenhuma execução desde então.
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