Tennessee execution survivor Christa Pike was thought to be on the brink of death in a Nashville hospital when the 50-year-old’s eyes suddenly popped open, one of her lawyers said Oct. 7.
“Monday night it was our understanding that Christa was brain dead and that life support would be removed the next day, but on Tuesday, to the shock of everyone — including me and including the medical team — Christa woke up and began talking,” attorney Randy Spivey said during an Oct. 7 press conference.
“I do not have an explanation for what happened between Monday night and Tuesday morning, but what we do know is that Christa has a long road to recovery. She has a blood clot in one of her arms, she has pneumonia, she is not able to swallow, so she has not eaten. Both her arms and hands are tremendously swollen.”
Christa Pike
Pike had been in critical condition since Sept. 30 when two doses of pentobarbital administered by the state failed to kill her. The botched procedure included at least an hour of Department of Corrections personnel repeatedly and unsuccessfully attempting to place IVs in her arms.
The execution came at the end of a day of legal rulings, one from a federal appeals court staying her execution and another by the U.S. Supreme court clearing the way for it.
Prior to the news conference, Spivey and other attorneys attended a court hearing where a judge granted their motion to preserve all execution-related communications and evidence such as syringes and drug containers and labels, CBS News reported.
“To any extent that any information or any evidence has already been discarded, deleted, destroyed or no longer exists, I want (the Tennessee Department of Corrections) to take an affirmative step to try to claw back that information and put in policies and procedures, while this incident litigation is pending, to ensure that no information is discarded or destroyed,” Chancellor I’Ashea Myles said.
Pike received the death penalty in 1995 for the killing of classmate Colleen Slemmer. Pike, who was 18 when convicted, has spent more than 30 years on Death Row, much of it in solitary confinement.
Randy Spivey speaks at news conference with Luke Ihnen in background
Her legal team spent the months leading up to her execution date trying to convince state and federal courts that Pike’s lifelong history of sexual abuse and mental illness, and a blood disorder that damaged her veins, would cause severe complications during lethal injection.
“What happened to Christa is exactly what the state was warned would happen and there are so many questions that need to be answered, not by Christa but by the State of Tennessee,” Spivey said. “We have to ask, ‘How much suffering is enough?’ We continue to ask Gov. (Bill) Lee to commute Christa’s death sentence.”
Tennessee also botched the execution of Tony Carruthers in May, resulting in a one-year reprieve granted by Lee.
Lee, whose term ends in January, has yet to address the issue of a reprieve or commutation for Pike, but has ordered a halt on executions for the remainder of the year and appointed a former U.S. attorney to investigate the state’s execution protocols.
However, attorney Luke Ihnen, a member of Pike’s legal team, said the Department of Corrections has been “shrouded in secrecy and legal jargon in attempts to obfuscate and obscure what really happened” to Pike.
Related:
Christa Pike and the moral case for ending the death penalty | Opinion by Nicole Wiesen
After failed execution in Tennessee, more questions remain
‘Bye bitch’ and other Bible Belt reactions to execution news | Opinion by Brad Bull
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