Misslyckad avrättning i USA – morddömda Christa Pike överlevde dödliga sprutor

Christa Gail Pike (born March 10, 1976) is an American convicted murderer who is incarcerated on death row in Tennessee. In 1995, when she was 18, Pike murdered her 19-year-old Job Corps classmate Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville. Pike and two friends led Slemmer into the woods, where they tortured and killed her. In 1996, at the age of 20, Pike was sentenced to death, making her one of the youngest women to be sentenced to death in the United States during the post-Furman period. She is currently scheduled to be executed on September 30, 2026. If the execution is carried out, she will be the 19th woman executed nationwide since 1976 and the first woman executed in Tennessee in 206 years, since the hanging of Eve Martin in 1820. Pike's sentence remains controversial, as some experts have opined that her legal defense failed to present mitigating evidence at trial, including the effect of her youth and childhood trauma on her decision-making abilities.

The Death Penalty Information Center (DPI) is a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on disseminating studies and reports related to the death penalty. Founded in 1990, DPI is primarily focused on the application of capital punishment in the United States. DPI does not take a formal position on the death penalty but is critical of how it is administered. As a result, some have referred to it as an anti-death penalty organization. According to a pro-death penalty prosecutor, DPI is "probably the single most comprehensive and authoritative internet resource on the death penalty" but "makes absolutely no effort to present any pro-death penalty views." However, the DPI's award-winning Educational Curriculum on the Death Penalty includes a discussion of commonly raised arguments both for and against the death penalty. In June 2022, on the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Furman v. Georgia, DPI released its Death Penalty Census, which covers the period from 1972 to January 1, 2021. The database was the result of a years-long effort. The Death Penalty Census will be updated periodically, includes death sentences imposed in U.S. state, federal, and military courts, and includes numerous details about each case.