If a person on death row survives their execution attempt, one in three Americans favor the government trying to execute them again, according to the findings of a new poll.
Adults who participated in the four-day nationwide Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday, October 20, were surveyed after the state of Tennessee failed to put convicted murderer Christa Pike to death in September.
Pike, 50, survived two injections of pentobarbital the evening of September 30 and was transferred to a medical facility alive, as state protocols prohibited further attempts to carry out her execution, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction.
While 33 percent of Americans are in support of a second execution attempt, 39 percent of adults believe death row inmates should serve life in prison instead if the government fails to execute them the first time, according to the poll, which included 1,679 respondents with a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
Another set of Americans, 26 percent, said they weren’t sure what should be done in the event of a botched execution, the poll found. Two percent of those polled between October 16 and 19 chose not to provide an answer to the question.
Pike was ultimately discharged from a hospital 10 days after she survived her execution attempt.
“She is grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances,” her attorneys told The New York Times in an October 10 statement.
Pike was said to be able to walk with assistance while struggling with concentration and memory, per the newspaper.
Pike, the only woman on death row in Tennessee, was sentenced to death after she was convicted of killing 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995. Pike was 18 at the time of the murder.
Most Americans, 55 percent, support the death penalty for defendants convicted of serious crimes, according to the Reuters/Ipsos poll. Support has declined since a Reuters/Ipsos poll in 2017, when 63 percent of those surveyed were in favor of capital punishment.
Following Pike’s execution attempt, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee paused all executions for the rest of the year.
The move suspended the remaining scheduled execution of Gary Wayne Sutton, who was set to be killed in the state on December 3.
Lee has ordered a “comprehensive, third-party review” of what potentially went wrong during Pike’s execution.
It remains unclear whether Tennessee will attempt to execute Pike again in the future.
“The state has made no promises that Ms. Pike will not be subject to a future execution,” one of her attorneys, Luke Ihnen, said in court on October 7, per CNN.
