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From The Desk | How Many Chances Does the State Get to Kill You? · Real Crime with Adam Shand

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Real Crime with Adam Shand and this is
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  Speaker 1: my Friday feature from the desk. Got a question for you.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: If a state tries to execute you and fails, should
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  Speaker 1: it be allowed to have another crack? It's not an
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  Speaker 1: issue here, of course, because we abolished capital punishment in
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: 1985 and the Federal Parliament passed legislation in 2010 prohibiting
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: its re-establishment by any state or territory. I note that
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: about 30% of Australians want to see the death penalty
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  Speaker 1: brought back, but that's another debate. But this question of
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  Speaker 1: the limits of the state's powers is now hanging over Tennessee,
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  Speaker 1: where the killer, Krista Pike, survived a lethal injection procedure
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  Speaker 1: on September 30th.
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  Speaker 2: Last week, Krista Pike was taken from the death chamber
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  Speaker 2: to hospital in this ambulance. Believed to be the first
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  Speaker 2: US convict to have ever survived lethal doses of execution drugs.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: According to reporting and her legal team, she received two
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  Speaker 1: doses of the execution drug pentobarbital during that procedure. It
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  Speaker 1: wasn't enough to do the job. She remained alive and
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  Speaker 1: was taken to the hospital. Her lawyers now say she's
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  Speaker 1: regained consciousness and is speaking, although she remains seriously unwell
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  Speaker 1: and very pissed off. The first thing she said was,
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  Speaker 1: where am I and who are you?
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  Speaker 2: On Monday night, It was our understanding that Krista was
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  Speaker 2: brain dead and that life support would be removed the
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  Speaker 2: next day.
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  Speaker 1: A judge has ordered evidence from the failed execution preserved.
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  Speaker 1: Any recording of that evening, September 30th, will need to
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  Speaker 1: be preserved. Before we lose perspective on why Pike was
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  Speaker 1: in the death chamber, let's not forget her victim, Colleen Slemmer.
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  Speaker 1: She was 19 when she was tortured and murdered in 1995.
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  Speaker 1: Pike was 18 at the time and she was convicted
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  Speaker 1: and sentenced to death. But when a government takes the
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  Speaker 1: power to kill a prisoner, it takes responsibility for how
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  Speaker 1: that killing is carried out. You may have heard the
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  Speaker 1: old story about hanging in England. If the rope broke,
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  Speaker 1: the condemned person had to be spared. It's a powerful idea.
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  Speaker 1: The authorities had their chance. Perhaps survival was a sign
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  Speaker 1: of divine intervention. Perhaps mercy should follow. But it's largely
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  Speaker 1: a myth. There was no automatic English rule guaranteeing a
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: reprieve when a rope failed. In 1866, William Collier was
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  Speaker 1: taken to the gallows at Stafford. The rope's slice failed
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  Speaker 1: and he fell. Officials got another rope and hanged him again.
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  Speaker 1: The sentence, that he be hanged by the neck until death,
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  Speaker 1: didn't specify a limit on the number of ropes that
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  Speaker 1: could be used. Then there was John Babacombe Leigh. In 1885,
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  Speaker 1: at Exeter Prison, they tried three times to hang him.
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  Speaker 1: Each time, the trapdoor failed to open properly. Eventually, the
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  Speaker 1: execution was stopped. Home Secretary Sir William Harcourt commuted the
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  Speaker 1: sentence to life imprisonment. Lee served 22 years before his release.
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  Speaker 1: His rope hadn't broken. The gallows mechanism had failed. And
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  Speaker 1: his reprieve was an act of discretion. Survival did not
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  Speaker 1: automatically cancel the sentence. And so what about Krista Pike?
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  Speaker 1: Tennessee has suspended executions for the rest of this year
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: and ordered an independent review. Her lawyers had raised concerns
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  Speaker 1: beforehand about her small veins and medical conditions. They say
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  Speaker 1: those warnings matter to what happened. Prison authorities have said
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  Speaker 1: they followed the state's protocols. The question now is whether
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  Speaker 1: Pike should ever be taken back to the death chambers. Legally,
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  Speaker 1: surviving an execution does not make a person immune from
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  Speaker 1: another attempt in the United States. And there is an
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  Speaker 1: important precedent. In 1946, Willie Francis survived an attempt to
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  Speaker 1: electrocute him in Louisiana. His case reached the United States
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  Speaker 1: Supreme Court. In 1947, the court permitted a second attempt,
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  Speaker 1: which was successful. Its judgment rejected the constitutional challenges in
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  Speaker 1: the circumstances before it, treating the failure as an accident
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  Speaker 1: rather than a deliberate effort to inflict additional suffering. That
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  Speaker 1: decision matters. It means we cannot simply declare that trying
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  Speaker 1: again is always unconstitutional. But it doesn't settle Pike's case.
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  Speaker 1: Her condition, what officials knew beforehand, what went wrong, and
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  Speaker 1: the risks of a proposed new procedure would need examination.
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  Speaker 1: The constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment would be
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  Speaker 1: central to that argument, according to lawyers I've spoken to.
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  Speaker 1: But on the face of it, Pike does not seem
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  Speaker 1: likely to gain an automatic reprieve. The moral question is
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  Speaker 1: something each of us can consider. Supporters of another attempt
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  Speaker 1: will say a jury imposed a death sentence. A failed
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  Speaker 1: injection should not overturn that decision. They'll ask why survival
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  Speaker 1: through chance should produce a different outcome from that faced
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  Speaker 1: by another person convicted of an equally terrible crime. That,
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  Speaker 1: of course, is a serious argument. And Colleen Slimmer's family
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  Speaker 1: should not be expected to feel sympathy for the woman
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  Speaker 1: convicted of killing her. However, the state has already subjected
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  Speaker 1: Pike to a procedure intended to end her life. She
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  Speaker 1: survived and required hospital treatment. If she recovers... Should the
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  Speaker 1: government prepare her for death all over again? It seems
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  Speaker 1: quite monstrous. What limits apply to that power? If another
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  Speaker 1: attempt failed, would a third be acceptable, or a fourth?
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  Speaker 1: At what point does carrying out a sentence become a
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  Speaker 1: succession of ordeals that the original sentence never contemplated? A
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  Speaker 1: government's duty to act humanely cannot depend on whether we
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  Speaker 1: like the prisoner. It matters most when the prisoner has
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  Speaker 1: committed something appalling. Otherwise, the standard becomes whatever we're prepared
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  Speaker 1: to tolerate happening to someone we despise. There's a tension here.
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  Speaker 1: The state attempts to end a life. After that attempt fails,
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  Speaker 1: medical staff work to preserve life. That medical care is necessary.
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  Speaker 1: A prisoner remains a human being entitled to treatment. But
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  Speaker 1: there is something awful about recovering from that ordeal while knowing...
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  Speaker 1: the government might seek another opportunity to execute you. Does
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  Speaker 1: that additional suffering change the moral calculation? Or do you
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  Speaker 1: believe that because Colleen Slemmer endured a terrible death, Pike's
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  Speaker 1: suffering should carry no weight? Commuting a death sentence to
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  Speaker 1: imprisonment would not erase Pike's conviction. It wouldn't declare her innocent.
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  Speaker 1: It would just change the punishment. People can disagree about
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  Speaker 1: whether that's warranted while agreeing... that the state must explain
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  Speaker 1: its failure. The responsibility for a lawful and humane punishment
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  Speaker 1: belongs to the state. After a failed execution that leaves
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  Speaker 1: a prisoner needing life-saving treatment, should the state be allowed
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  Speaker 1: another attempt? Does the original sentence justify trying again?
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  Speaker 2: Or....
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  Speaker 1: Has the state reached a point where mercy is the
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  Speaker 1: more defensible exercise of its power? And even if a
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  Speaker 1: court permits another attempt, would that make it morally correct?
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  Speaker 1: How many chances should a government get to kill someone
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  Speaker 1: in its custody? For those seeking a return to the
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  Speaker 1: death penalty here, this is indeed food for thought. I'm
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  Speaker 1: Adam Shand. This is From the Desk. You can follow
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: me on Facebook and subscribe to continue the conversation. Thanks
• 8:14
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