America’s First Botched Lethal Injection Explained - John Kirakou

The gist

1. Lethal injection uses three drugs that can cause extreme pain, but the paralytic agents prevent inmates from showing any distress they feel.
2. Pike likely survived because the drugs were injected into tissue rather than a vein, stopping them from reaching her bloodstream effectively.
3. Of eight modern U.S. lethal injection survival cases, Pike is the only one who received the full drug sequence, making her case legally significant.
4. Tennessee's protocol calls for a second 100 mg pentobarbital dose five minutes after the first if the prisoner is still breathing.