Christa Pike execution fails: What next when a lethal injection is botched?

Two doses of a lethal injection drug have failed to kill Christa Gail Pike, a 50-year-old woman who was due to be executed on Wednesday. Pike was taken to hospital after it was found that her heart was still beating following the procedure.Pike would have been the first woman in more than 200 years to be put to death in Tennessee and was the only woman on the state’s death row. Her attempted execution with doses of the sedative pentobarbital went ahead despite a last-minute stay by a federal appeals court on Wednesday, which was overturned just an hour before her execution by the Supreme Court.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3US appeals court halts Tennessee execution of Christa Pikelist 2 of 3Tennessee death-row prisoner Christa Pike survives lethal injectionslist 3 of 3Execution of US woman Christa Pike fails after botched lethal injectionend of listHuman rights experts said the botched execution illustrates why the death penalty is inhumane and should be abolished.Clive Stafford Smith, a human rights lawyer who has represented many American death row inmates as well as detainees held at the notorious Guantanamo Bay detention centre, told Al Jazeera: “I’ve been in th...