Death row convict Christa Pike is in critical condition after a failed execution in Tennessee, according to her lawyers. They were told that Pike was receiving life-saving medical treatment, her lawyers said in a news conference.
After the incident, Governor Bill Lee suspended all further executions for the rest of the year and ordered a full investigation by an outside agency. What Pike's prognosis is and what health consequences she could suffer is still unclear.
The 50-year-old was scheduled to be executed with lethal injection on Wednesday evening. But after she was given the two doses of the drug pentobarbital required by the protocol, according to authorities, she continued to live. Witnesses reported hearing Pike breathing and gasping for air for a long time. One of her lawyers later said he even heard her talking and singing after the first dose. Eventually, Pike was taken to a medical facility outside of the prison.
Pike's attorney, Randy Spivey, said Thursday that staff tried to insert an intravenous line for about an hour without success. "I counted at least seven needles in her left arm alone, one of which appeared to be bent when it was pulled from her arm after an unsuccessful attempt," Spivey said. During the execution, her right arm also turned purple; According to the defense, there are now blisters and burns around the puncture sites.
Doctors interviewed by the New York Times believe it is possible that at least some of the pentobarbital did not enter Pike's bloodstream, but rather into the surrounding tissue. This could explain why the amount administered was not enough to completely stop breathing and circulation.
The Tennessee Department of Corrections then emphasized that every step of the current policy had been followed. After the second dose, no further measures are planned.
According to the independent Death Penalty Information Center, no other case is known from the modern era of capital punishment in the United States in which a prisoner was given the drugs for execution and subsequently lived. In previous failed executions, the execution had usually been stopped beforehand, for example because no suitable venous access could be established.
Pike's defense attorneys had been warning for months about potential problems with the execution. It was said that Pike had small and difficult-to-access veins. They also raised concerns about the execution policy and medical care in the event of complications and took legal action against Tennessee's lethal injection procedure. A court ultimately rejected the objections.
After the failed attempt, Pike's lawyers said that some of the previously described fears had now come true. They accused the state of lacking transparency. Attorney Spivey said the curtains to the witness room were closed for an extended period of time; In addition, it took minutes to contact other lawyers by telephone.
An appeals court initially stopped the planned execution on Wednesday. Pike's lawyers wanted the courts to revisit the question of whether severe sexual abuse and other traumatic experiences from her childhood, as well as mental illness, had been adequately taken into account in previous decisions on Pike's death sentence.
Tennessee then went to the Supreme Court. The highest US court lifted the stay that evening, clearing the way for the execution. A day earlier, the Supreme Court had rejected another request from Pike to stop the execution.
Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. She was 18 years old at the time of the crime. Slemmer was abused for a long time in Knoxville in 1995 and finally killed.
In recent years, Pike's lawyers have increasingly focused on her difficult childhood, mental illness and her development during more than three decades in prison. Governor Lee nevertheless rejected a request for clemency shortly before the scheduled execution date. It is unclear whether and under what conditions the state could try to carry out the death sentence again.
