Christa Pike remains unconscious and on a ventilator two days after a botched execution involving lethal injection in Tennessee, according to a statement and court filing issued by her lawyers Friday.
Pike is “critically ill,” remains intubated and is receiving treatment at a hospital in the Nashville area, her attorneys said.
Her lawyers are asking the court to order the Tennessee Department of Correction to “protect and preserve all evidence related to the State’s failed attempt” to execute Pike on Wednesday.
The filing alleges that the department’s IV team used at least seven needles during the execution attempt. At one point, Pike reportedly suggested a possible site where medical staff might gain access to a vein.
According to the filing, one needle was bent at a 90-degree angle when it was removed. Pike could be heard crying, whimpering and breathing heavily throughout the procedure. She reportedly said her arm felt “like it’s about to burst open” and asked, “does this happen like that?”
Pike and her attorneys had previously warned state officials that a blood condition could complicate the lethal injection process. She had also disclosed a history of medical professionals having difficulty locating her veins and inserting IVs.
Her lawyers said Pike suffered serious injuries to both arms during the failed execution. When she reached the hospital, her arms were reportedly “swollen, burned and blistered.” Experts and Pike’s attorneys said pentobarbital can burn skin and other tissue if it escapes a vein.
Pike’s attorneys said the Tennessee Department of Correction’s IV team apparently did not recognize that the lines had been improperly placed or that her veins had blown, allowing pentobarbital to enter her body. Rather than correcting the problem, they said, the execution team administered a second dose of the drug.
“The botched execution of Ms. Pike makes it abundantly clear that TDOC failed to correctly place or maintain IV lines,” her lawyers wrote.
Hospital staff are working to save Pike’s life and remove pentobarbital from her system, her attorneys said.
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“We are working closely with those closest to Christa to respect her wishes, safeguard her privacy and protect her rights as a patient during this extraordinarily difficult time,” said Luke Ihnen, one of Pike’s attorneys.
Pike’s lawyers had earlier described the failed execution as “cruel,” “torturous” and “predictable.”
“The state of Tennessee has shown us again that they are not capable of carrying out an execution consistent with basic human dignity,” attorney Randy Spivey told reporters Thursday.
Spivey has urged Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to commute Pike’s death sentence. Her execution is now on hold after Lee called off the remaining executions scheduled in the state for the rest of the year. The governor ordered a “comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what happened.”
Pike had been set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee since the 1800s after the Supreme Court ruled that her execution could proceed. She was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of her former classmate, Colleen Slemmer.
Court records say Pike and Slemmer were students at the Job Corps Center in Knoxville when Pike, then 18, tortured and killed Slemmer, 19, reportedly because of comments Slemmer had made about Pike’s relationship. Pike is now 50.
