NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Christa Pike has regained consciousness and is able to speak after Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute her by lethal injection last week, and her attorneys are heading to court Wednesday to request more information about what went wrong.
Pike, 50, survived even after executioners tried to give her two lethal doses of pentobarbital on Sept. 30. She was sentenced to death for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of classmate
Colleen Slemmer.
Pike’s attorneys are set to attend a status hearing on the case in Nashville on Wednesday, where they are planning to request a court order compelling the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve evidence in the case and provide more information.
“Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking and continues to receive critical medical care,” attorneys for Pike said in a statement. Pike’s prognosis remains unclear and, at a minimum, she faces a lengthy recovery, the attorneys said. Pike's arms were burned and blistered after the attempted lethal injection and she is handcuffed to the hospital bed, they said.
The failed execution has renewed scrutiny over how states carry out the death penalty, in particular the use of lethal injection. Texas was set on Wednesday to carry out the first execution in the U.S. since Tennessee attempted to put Pike to death.
Pike’s attorneys are seeking a court order to require the prison system to preserve information from the attempted execution, including drug lot numbers, needles, execution logs and other information.
Attorneys with the Tennessee attorney general’s office wrote in a Tuesday court filing that a court order is unnecessary because the prison system is “obliged to maintain this evidence in other cases and must assure it is preserved.” They said state officials have taken “the necessary steps to obtain medical care for Pike and ascertain what occurred.”
Republican Gov. Bill Lee called what happened “deeply disturbing” and ordered a “comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.” The governor postponed the state’s only other execution scheduled for this year.
The state's prison chief resigned in the wake of the failed execution.
Medical and lethal injection experts have focused on the possibility that a problem with the IV line caused the drug to pool in her tissue rather than entering her bloodstream. Pike’s attorneys wrote in their court filing that “apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown.”
The attempted execution got underway around 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 30 when Pike was given a chance to make a final statement. About five minutes later, Pike raised her head and said her arm was hurting. At some point she appeared to lose consciousness, but she could be heard audibly breathing until media were escorted from the witness room at 8:53 p.m. An ambulance arrived at the prison at 9:14 p.m. to take Pike to a hospital.
Dr. Joel Zivot, a professor of anesthesiology and surgery in Atlanta who consulted as an expert for Pike’s legal team, said it could be weeks or months before anyone knows exactly what her recovery might look like, and whether her competency could be restored so the state can try again to execute her.
