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Christa Pike, the Tennessee death row inmate whose execution was botched last week, is conscious and speaking in the hospital a week after the failed attempt to kill her, her lawyers said in a statement on Tuesday. Pike, 50, is believed to be the first person in the United States to survive a complete execution attempt.
"Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care," her lawyers said in the statement, published by USA Today. "Her recovery is medically unprecedented. Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery."
They said she has "severe damage" to her arms and is still handcuffed and shackled to her hospital bed. Her lawyers have not been allowed to visit her in the hospital. A power of attorney has seen her and is directing her care.
Pike was convicted of the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995. Her execution was set for Sept. 30 by lethal injection, the second execution Tennessee has botched this year. Pike's attorneys had argued for a stay of execution because of her abusive and traumatic childhood, during which she was sexually assaulted on several occasions. A federal appeals court granted a last-minute stay that delayed the execution by nearly ten hours, until the U.S. Supreme Court overturned it.
The first dose of pentobarbital was administered to Pike at 7:30 p.m. Central time. After four minutes Pike said, “My arm feels like it’s about to burst open,” WKRN’s Tori Gessner, who was among the reporters who witnessed part of the proceedings, reported. For the next half hour or so Pike took deep breaths and appeared to be snoring. At times she moved and even grunted and made choking sounds, according to reporters. The curtains were closed at 7:46 p.m. and reopened three minutes later when a second dose of the deadly drug was apparently administered. The curtains were then closed again at 8:05 p.m. and the reporters were told to leave. Pike was later taken to a hospital in the Nashville area.
Attorneys for death row inmate Christa Pike said it took about an hour and several attempts to establish IV access in her arms. They believe that instead of flowing through her veins, the lethal injection drugs may have entered her tissue. Pike’s attorneys previously alerted Tennessee officials to her unique anatomy, which includes small veins and a blood-clotting disorder called thrombocytosis. On October 2, attorneys for Pike said the woman was "unconscious and on a ventilator" and that her arms were burned, blistered and were swelling.
Joel Zivot, an anesthesiologist advising Pike’s defense team, told the BBC the drug would have been lethal had it entered her bloodstream normally. He believes that instead the drug traveled through the tissue of her skin and entered her body in that form. As for how much entered her system, that remains a mystery. Deborah Denno, a Fordham Law School professor who studies executions, told the BBC she was “absolutely astonished” by the news. She said there have been seven other times in which inmates have survived execution but the executioners were unable to get the drugs into their veins.
The Death Penalty Information Center said Pike appears to be the first person known to have survived after execution drugs entered her body.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has asked for an independent investigation into the attempted execution of death row inmate Christa Pike and has called off the single remaining execution scheduled in the state this year. He has also announced the upcoming resignation of Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada, who oversaw Pike’s attempted execution as well as May’s attempted execution of Tony Carruthers. The attorneys for Pike are asking Governor Lee to commute Pike’s sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The governor’s office has not returned USA Today’s calls to see if the governor will grant the request for clemency and commute Pike’s sentence. No new execution date has been set for Pike.
