Botched Execution Puts Sedative in the Spotlight

The drug used by Tennessee in its unsuccessful attempt to execute Christa Pike on Wednesday night is more commonly used to treat emergency seizures than end lives. Pentobarbital, commonly sold as Nembutal, is a short-acting barbiturate that depresses the central nervous system, explains USA Today. It's primarily used as a pre-anaesthetic before surgery, in medically induced comas, and in veterinary euthanasia. In large amounts, the drug can shut down the parts of the brain that control breathing and heart rate. Pike, 50, received two doses but retained a heartbeat and could be heard snoring before the execution was called off and she was brought to the hospital, per the New York Times. Authorities had not updated her condition as of early Thursday afternoon.

Pentobarbital, tightly regulated as a Schedule II controlled substance, has become a staple of lethal injection protocols, including Tennessee's, which previously used a three-drug protocol. The federal government also has switched to pentobarbital. A federal review last year raised the possibility that pentobarbital could result in the buildup of fluid in the lungs that could cause a sensation of suffocation in inmates, per the AP. There "remains significant uncertainty about whether the use of pentobarbital as a single drug lethal injection causes unnecessary pain and suffering," reads the review, which advised that the government to "err on the side of humane treatment."

Others, however, countered that a lethal dose would cause the inmate to lose consciousness before that happened. A witness to Wednesday's attempted execution said Pike complained of pain: "My arm feels like it's about to burst open." It remains unclear what went wrong with the dosage. "We take no pleasure in being right, but the concerns raised by Ms. Pike proved to be true: difficult vein access, blown veins, degraded pentobarbital, no emergency medical care available when things inevitably go wrong, all under a protocol that remains veiled in secrecy," said her attorneys in a statement. Gov. Bill Lee has ordered an investigation and paused the state's remaining execution this year.