Even murderers are made in the image of God

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(RNS) — At 7:27 p.m. on Sept. 30, Christa Gail Pike lay strapped to a gurney at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. She said her last words. Then, the state went to work to kill her.

The pentobarbital did not put her to sleep. Pike stayed awake long enough to lift her head and ask whether her arm was supposed to hurt, The Associated Press reported. The execution team pushed a second dose by 8:26. That did not kill her, either.

By the following afternoon, she lay in critical condition, receiving lifesaving medical care. For days, she remained unconscious on a ventilator while doctors worked to clear the drug from her body.

On Oct. 5, her lawyers said she was brain-dead.

The next day, she woke up. According to her attorney, Randy Spivey, her first words were, “Where am I?” and “Who are you?”

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In the days that followed, she battled pneumonia and a blood clot in her arm. The failed injection had left the arm burned and blistered. Her lawyers described her thinking as foggy and said they fear permanent…