Death row inmate Christa Pike was alive Thursday after Tennessee officials were unable to put her to death a day earlier with two doses of a lethal drug.
Pike, 50, is in critical condition, her lawyer said Thursday. She was due to be the first woman put to death in the state in 206 years, after a court overturned a late stay of execution. Experts say her survival is unprecedented.
Officials administered pentobarbital to Pike twice at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville around 8 p.m. local time, but she was later heard snoring.
Pike was being executed for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, a classmate she tortured and killed when she was 18.
The execution had already been delayed for hours after a panel of the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay to allow further review of her legal challenges.
The U.S. Supreme Court later lifted that stay at Tennessee's request in a 6-3 decision, allowing the execution to proceed before Pike's death warrant expired at midnight.
Tennessee state representative slams lack of transparency after failed execution
Tennessee state Representative Jody Barrett expressed frustration over the lack of transparency surrounding the state’s execution protocol.
Barrett, a Republican who has voiced growing displeasure with state officials, called the outcome “devastating” for victim Colleen Slemmer’s family.
“All we’ve done is pick the scab off of their wound and pour salt in it,” Barrett told The New York Times.
Mother of the woman Christa Pike murdered said she wanted to finish her execution personally
“If I could have gotten in that room, I would have taken the box cutter and cut her up like she did Colleen,” May said while driving back to Florida from Tennessee. “I want to go kill Christa. How’s that?”
Christa Pike likely 'blew' a vein, which made the drugs simply burn her arm, says Dr. Joel Zivot, Professor of anesthesiology
Dr. Joel Zivot, an anesthesiology professor and medical expert in the case, suggested Pike likely suffered a “blown” vein during her botched execution, causing the lethal injection chemicals to leak into surrounding tissue rather than enter her bloodstream.
“It was heard that she was breathing in a kind of unnatural way,” Zivot told the Associated Press. “I believe that she did not just naturally fall off to sleep, no one is suggesting that. So there was some degree of, kind of, chemical-induced stupor, but she continued to breathe while under the influence of that.”
Zivot stressed that execution should never be confused with actual medicine.
“Execution is never a medical act,” he said. “It’s made to look and feel like one, so all these kinds of safety features that people are speculating over ... that’s because this is not a hospital. There’s no practice of medicine here.”
Christa Pike’s lawyers make yet another plea to spare her life after botched execution
In addition to sharing new, disturbing details about the failed execution, Pike’s lawyers once again called on Gov. Lee for a commutation — a request he previously denied.
Lee has ordered an independent review of the state's lethal injection protocol and paused all remaining scheduled executions for the rest of the year — at least for now.
Christa Pike's lawyers hope she recovers: 'This kind of thing should never happen again'
Lawyers for Christa Pike said they would figure out their next steps once she recovers.
"This is awful. This kind of thing should never happen again,” one of her lawyers said during a Thursday press conference.
Lawyers suspect the lethal injection drugs were going into Christa Pike's tissue, not her veins
Christa Pike’s lawyers said Thursday they suspect the lethal injection drugs were going into her tissue, not her veins, due to a medical condition.
Pike, 50, has small veins and a blood disorder called thrombocytosis, her lawyers have said.
Christa Pike still spoke coherently after the first round of lethal drugs
Christa Pike was still speaking coherently after the first round of lethal injection drugs, her lawyers said Thursday.
She was taken to the hospital after surviving two rounds of lethal injections.
Christa Pike in critical condition after receiving life-saving care
Christa Pike is currently in critical condition after receiving life-saving care following her failed execution on Wednesday, her lawyer said during a Thursday press conference.
Pike’s “right arm turned purple after the second round of chemicals put into her body,” her lawyer said.
Her lawyers said they don’t know what happened between the time the curtain was closed after the second attempt and the ambulance arrived. It was unclear if she received any life-saving care in the execution room.
Her lawyers said they have not spoken to her or seen her in the hospital.
Christa Pike still alive one day after failed execution
An attorney for Christa Pike said Thursday that she is still alive, one day after Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute her by lethal injection.
Pike requested to be hanged, fearing too many issues with the state's current execution method
Christa Pike’s legal team argued for an alternative method to put her to death instead of lethal injection — proposing she be hanged instead, according to a report.
A month before her botched execution Wednesday, attorneys for Pike argued that her small veins and her blood disorder, thrombocytosis, would cause her needless suffering, T**he Tennessean reported.
Her attorneys proposed hanging her or a line in the jugular vein of her neck, rather than her arm.
Start with the central line," attorney Stephen Ferrell said. "It makes the execution less torturous. It is available and easily implemented ... It would lessen the pain and suffering."
Her legal team also argued that hanging would cause death more quickly with less suffering.
However, both requests were denied.
In response to the requests, the state argued that Tennessee stopped the practice of hanging death row inmates over 100 years ago, and that the central-line method also had its own risks.
"Hanging is an unpredictable way of causing death," said Assistant Attorney General for the State of Tennessee Will Ayers. "It's not easy to do right. There is no evidence that Tennessee has the materials or expertise to carry out a hanging."