Following the botched execution of Kristi Pike, the U.S. state of Tennessee suspended all scheduled executions through the end of the year. State Governor Bill Lee made the announcement, Reuters reports, according to UNN.
"Nobody wanted what happened last night to happen. It is a tragedy, and I am deeply concerned that this happened in our state. People deserve better, and we will make sure that is what they get," Lee said.
Lee told reporters that it was not yet clear exactly what went wrong. He said he had no new information about Pike's condition and had not spoken with her family. Following the botched execution, he ordered a suspension of scheduled executions in Tennessee through the end of the year and an independent review of the failed attempt that took place on Wednesday.
Update
On Wednesday, September 30, the execution of 50-year-old Kristi Pike was scheduled to take place in the U.S. state of Tennessee. She had been sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of her classmate.
However, on the same day, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit stayed Pike's execution several hours before it was due to be carried out.
That evening, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the appeals court's decision. The stay was overturned by conservative Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who did not explain his decision. Three liberal members of the court—Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson—dissented.
Following the court's decision, the execution procedure resumed; however, according to media reports, Kristi Pike survived the attempted execution by lethal injection.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said: "The case of Kristi Pike clearly demonstrates the numerous reasons why the death penalty should be abolished. The prolonged suffering—physical and mental—caused by multiple botched execution attempts is abhorrent and cruel. In addition, key questions regarding a fair trial remain unresolved."
He called for an end to any further attempts to execute Pike.
"We are also concerned about the rising number of executions in the United States. There is no place for the death penalty in any society," Türk said.