The failed execution of murderer Christa Pike has brought the US death penalty back into sharp focus across the world. The question of whether capital punishment should remain continues to divide America, with major international organisations and various countries holding opposing positions on putting prisoners to death for their crimes.
Death penalty statistics and trends
The penalty is legal in 27 states, while it has been abolished in 23. Almost 1,700 executions have taken place in the modern era since 1977, with the vast majority taking place in southern states, such as Texas and Oklahoma. But since 1973, at least 203 people wrongly convicted and sentenced to death have been exonerated.
Polling shows that national support for the death penalty in America now stands at an all-time low. Some 52 per cent agree with it, with 44 per cent opposing the life-ending measures. Around 2,000 individuals are currently on state or federal death rows, showing a continuous decline for more than two decades. There were 47 executions carried out last year, up from 25 in 2024, driven largely by an increase in Florida.
Botched execution sparks outrage
The failure to administer two lethal injections into killer Pike correctly has sparked further debate, with campaigners saying the botched attempt is proof the punishment is not fit for purpose. She woke “angry and confused” after surviving the execution, her attorneys said on Wednesday.
The 50-year-old's lawyers were seeking the court to order the state to preserve all evidence from her execution. The judge ordered the state to preserve “anything that was in the actual room”. Speaking to the press outside the court house in Tennessee, her lawyer Randy Spivey told reporters she asked two questions as soon as she woke up. She said: “Where am I and who are you?”
Mr Spivey added that Pike was “very aware that the state tried to execute her”. He described “extraordinary” swelling to her hands, which he said looked like “if you tried to blow up a surgical glove”. She was to become the first woman executed by Tennessee in more than 200 years.
Victim's mother reacts
Pike was on death row for the brutal murder of Colleen Slemmer in January 1995. Slemmer was killed at age 19, after being lured into an isolated area on the University of Tennessee agricultural campus. She was convicted alongside her boyfriend in 1996, and the court heard there was a pentagram carved into Slemmer's chest.
The mother of Pike's victim is losing hope that her daughter's killer will ever be executed. Miss Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, said that she knew all along that Pike wouldn't die, and doesn't believe the state will try to execute her again. "It doesn’t matter what I think, they’re going to do what they’re going to do," Martinez told WBIR when asked what her preference would be for the next outcome.
Ms Martinez expressed her fury over the botched execution on Thursday, telling the Associated Press, "I didn't get justice for my daughter." Martinez had to raise money in order to attend the execution from her home in Florida, bringing a photo of her daughter with her. "I watched the whole thing. She was awake," she said. "She was moving her head, moving her feet. She was trying to sit up. Didn't work the first time they gave her a shot. It didn't work the second time, so she's in the hospital and alive."
