Arya News - Tennessee death row inmate survives execution attempt, sparking legal and medical concerns.
Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike, who survived a failed execution by lethal injection in a US prison last week, is conscious and speaking at a hospital, her lawyers have said.
Fifty-year-old Pike was convicted of murdering her classmate in 1995.
The Death Penalty Information Center, which publishes data and analysis on capital punishment in the United States, said Pike was the first inmate ever to survive “after being injected with lethal doses of execution drugs”.
Pike’s “unprecedented” survival raises questions about her medical and legal future.
Here’s what we know.
What is Christa Pike’s condition now?
Pike is under guard, recovering at a hospital in Nashville where she was rushed after surviving the lethal injection administered by the Tennessee Department of Correction. Her arms were swollen, burned and blistered when she arrived at the hospital on September 30.
“Against all odds”, Pike is now “conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care”, her lawyers said, adding that “she is still handcuffed and shackled to the bed”.
They called her recovery “medically unprecedented”.
Pike’s prognosis remained “unclear”, they said, adding that, at a minimum, she faced a lengthy recovery.
Why was Pike on death row?
Fifty-year-old Pike was sentenced to death after being convicted of a murder as a teenager.
The case sparked debate over the death penalty for young offenders, as Pike was 18 when she and her boyfriend beat, tortured and killed 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer at a job training camp in 1995.
Pike’s lawyers sought clemency, citing her age, childhood sexual abuse and mental health problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder.
The case had already attracted attention in the run-up to the execution date, as Pike would have been the first woman put to death by the state of Tennessee in more than 200 years.
Death row inmate Christa Pike enters a Knox County Criminal Court in Knoxville, Tennessee, US, on December 4, 2007 [J Miles Cary/Reuters] What went wrong in the death chamber?
7:30pm – The attempt to execute Pike got under way on September 30 in the death chamber at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. Pike was given a chance to make a final statement before two doses of the chemical pentobarbital were administered as executioners attempted to put her to death.
7:35pm – Pike raised her head and said her arm was hurting.
8:53pm – Media were escorted out of the witness room.
9:14pm – An ambulance arrived at the prison to take Pike to hospital.
Journalists who witnessed the execution said a black curtain was drawn from inside the death chamber during the process to insert the intravenous lines into Pike, in line with state regulations. This is done to conceal the identities of the workers who perform the procedure.
Tennessee’s execution protocol calls for a secondary set of pentobarbital-filled syringes in case the condemned person does not die after the first set. But there are no instructions for how to proceed if the person does not die after a second lethal injection dose.
How will Pike’s lawyers proceed?
Pike’s lawyers are due in court on Wednesday, where they will be seeking more information from the Tennessee Department of Correction about the botched execution attempt.
They 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.
Medical and lethal injection experts said it is possible there was a problem with the way the IV line was inserted, causing the drug to collect in her tissue rather than enter her bloodstream.
“Apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realise that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown,” Pike’s lawyers said in a court filing.
Prior to the execution attempt, Pike’s lawyers had requested her death penalty to be carried out by firing squad or hanging, because she had small veins and a blood-clotting condition called thrombocytosis. They feared the condition could make the insertion of intravenous needles difficult and increase the risk of a failed procedure.
Pike’s lawyers have called for her death sentence to be commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole after the failed execution attempt.
What do Tennessee government officials say?
Republican Governor 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.
Frank Strada, the former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Correction, who was the prison chief at the time of Pike’s failed execution, agreed to step down later this month.
US Senator Marsha Blackburn, the state’s Republican candidate to replace Bill Lee, called on Tennessee to explore other methods of execution to ensure it can continue carrying out capital punishment.
It is unclear whether or when Tennessee could attempt to execute Pike again. Lawyers have argued it would be cruel and unusual punishment and that a new attempt could violate the prohibition on double jeopardy, trying or punishing someone twice for the same offence.