Death penalty in the USA: Lawyers: Pike conscious after failed execution

After a failed execution attempt, the US American Christa Pike, who was sentenced to death, is conscious again and can speak, according to her lawyers. The 50-year-old will continue to be treated in intensive care. Her prognosis is still unclear, but at least a long recovery time can be expected.

Pike suffered severe damage to his arms during the execution attempt, the lawyers said. Nevertheless, she was still handcuffed and shackled to the hospital bed. Her recovery was “medically unprecedented,” the statement said. According to her lawyers, Pike had previously been unconscious and was being ventilated in a hospital in the Nashville area, Tennessee.

According to the authorities, Pike was given the two doses of the drug pentobarbital specified in the execution protocol last Wednesday evening. Yet she continued to live. Witnesses reported that they could hear her breathing heavily for a long time. One of her lawyers later even said that he could still hear Pike talking and singing after the first dose of medication. She was eventually taken by ambulance to a medical facility outside the prison.

Legal tug of war until shortly beforehand

Just a few hours before the attempted execution, it was unclear whether the death penalty would even be carried out. A federal appeals court initially stopped the execution at short notice. Pike's lawyers wanted the courts to revisit the question of whether severe experiences of abuse and violence from her childhood and mental illness had been sufficiently taken into account in previous decisions on her death sentence.

The state of Tennessee then turned to the Supreme Court. The highest US court overturned the stay on the same day, clearing the way for the execution. The Supreme Court had already rejected another application by Pike against the enforcement the day before.

Lawyers report problems with execution

The exact cause of the failed execution remains unclear. Pike's lawyers reported significant problems with the placement of the vein access. One of her arms turned purple during the execution, and later there were blisters and burns at the puncture sites. Pike's lawyers subsequently called for her death sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment and announced further legal action. In their new statement, they reiterated their call for Tennessee's governor to commute Pike's death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The prison authority previously stated that the execution protocol had been fully processed. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, there is no known comparable modern U.S. case in which the intended execution drugs were administered and the prisoner still lived.

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 tortured over a long period of time in 1995 in a remote area near Knoxville and ultimately killed. Pike's execution would have been the first of a woman in Tennessee in more than 200 years.