A woman who lived through a failed execution attempt at a Tennessee prison last week can now speak and has regained consciousness, her legal team confirmed on Tuesday.
Christa Pike (50) was supposed to die when prison officials gave her two doses of pentobarbital, a drug meant to cause death. Instead, she survived and doctors rushed her to hospital, where she spent days on a breathing machine in critical condition.
Her lawyers said Tuesday that Pike has “against all odds” woken up and started talking, though they warned her recovery will likely take a long time. Doctors still don’t know what her full prognosis will be.
The legal team renewed their call for Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to change Pike’s death sentence to life behind bars.
Lawyers want evidence kept safe
Pike’s lawyers filed court documents asking a judge to order prison officials to keep all evidence from the botched execution. They want physical items, written records and computer files preserved. A court will hear the request on Wednesday.
What went wrong
Joel Zivot, a doctor who works with Pike’s legal team, wrote in The New York Times that Pike has unusually small veins. This made it harder for prison staff to insert the IV lines needed to deliver the lethal drug into her bloodstream.
During the execution, Pike’s arms turned purple and she told staff she felt a burning pain. Zivot said these signs show the pentobarbital likely went into the tissue of her arms instead of her veins because the IV lines failed.
The drug itself might have gone bad before officials used it, Zivot added. Tennessee authorities have not shared any details about where they got the pentobarbital or how they stored it.
The Death Penalty Information Center said Pike became the first prisoner in US history to survive after receiving what should have been fatal doses of execution drugs.
Tennessee halts executions
Governor Lee stopped all executions in Tennessee while an independent team investigates what happened. The state’s prison chief stepped down from his job after the failed attempt.
Laura Porter, who leads the US Campaign to End the Death Penalty, said the investigation and resignation are positive steps. But she warned that Tennessee has ignored expert advice in the past.
“It is essential that the execution process no longer be shrouded in secrecy,” Porter said.
No executions have taken place anywhere in the United States since Pike’s failed death.
Texas plans execution despite Pike case
Texas has scheduled the execution of Jamaal Howard for Wednesday. Howard was convicted of killing a shop clerk during a robbery. His lawyers tried to stop his execution by pointing to what happened to Pike, but courts rejected their appeals.
The crime that led to death row
Pike was 18 years old when she and her boyfriend beat and killed Colleen Slemmer (19) at a job training camp in 1995. The case drew national attention because someone carved a pentagram, often linked to satanic imagery, into Slemmer’s chest.
ALSO READ: WATCH | Botched lethal injection leaves Pike on ventilator
Pike’s legal team asked for mercy before the execution, pointing to her young age at the time, sexual abuse she suffered as a child, and mental health issues including post-traumatic stress disorder.
The case also attracted interest because Pike would have been the first woman Tennessee executed in more than 200 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Death penalty in America
Officials have carried out 29 executions across the United States this year, not counting Pike’s failed attempt. All used lethal injection.
Twenty-three of America’s 50 states have abolished the death penalty completely. Three more states – California, Oregon and Pennsylvania – have temporary bans in place.
The Pentagon said Monday that President Donald Trump approved the execution of Nidal Hasan, a US Army psychiatrist who shot dead 13 people and wounded more than two dozen at Fort Hood military base in Texas in 2009. Hasan will face a firing squad. If it happens, it will be the first military execution since 1961.
ALSO READ: Tennessee halts executions after woman survives two lethal injections
