Christa Pike drank a mouthful of Gatorade, a brightly colored sports drink, hours before she was scheduled to die for the murder of Colleen Slemmer, according to Svenska Dagbladet. The execution did not go ahead as planned.
Svenska Dagbladet reports that the drug meant to kill Pike may now end up keeping her alive. The paper describes the outcome as an execution that broke down. A separate Svenska Dagbladet headline says Pike was angry after the failed execution.
The case dates back 31 years, Svenska Dagbladet reports, to Pike's murder of Slemmer. Pike had been set to be put to death for that killing.
Coverage of the episode has spread beyond the initial reports. Expressen published a follow-up describing the disorder around the execution, reporting that Pike could not walk. The Swedish papers Dagens Nyheter and Hallandsposten both carried opinion pieces arguing against capital punishment, with Dagens Nyheter running a reader submission under a headline calling for an end to what it described as barbarism, and Hallandsposten asking how such a practice can be allowed to continue.
The material available does not explain how the drug could preserve Pike's life, what went wrong during the procedure, or what her current legal status is. Those details were not included in the reporting summarized here.
What to watch next: whether authorities set a new execution date for Pike, and how the failed procedure affects the legal fight over lethal injection in her case.
