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Lawyer says Tennessee execution survivor is in critical condition
A lawyer says a woman who survived two lethal injections during a failed Tennessee execution is in critical condition and receiving life-saving care.
Randy Spivey said at a virtual news conference Thursday afternoon that he had been told she was in critical condition and receiving life-saving care. He declined to provide further details.
Christa Pike, 50, was taken from a prison execution chamber to a hospital Wednesday night, still alive after two doses of pentobarbital intended to carry out her execution.
Spivey urged Governor Bill Lee to scrap Pike's death sentence. Lee had denied a request for clemency earlier in the week.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said it had followed every step of the state's lawful, established execution protocol. It also said Pike was subsequently taken to an off-site medical facility.
Governor Lee called for a comprehensive review of the failed execution by a third party.
UN rights chief Volker Turk urged Tennessee not to attempt to execute Pike again.
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Lawyer says Christa Pike hospitalized after failed execution attempt
Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike was taken to hospital after an attempt to execute her with two lethal injections failed, her lawyer said. The lawyer's account described a failed execution attempt followed by hospitalization.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said he ordered a comprehensive review by an outside party to establish exactly what happened. In the same statement, he said the year's last remaining execution would not go ahead as planned.
Tennessee's execution protocol provides for a second set of drug syringes if the person does not die after the first set. It does not specify what should happen if the person remains alive after the second set.
The attempt followed a Supreme Court decision late Wednesday overturning a reprieve that a lower court had granted earlier that day. The lower court had paused the execution because it needed more time to consider the arguments in Pike's case.
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Lawyers say Christa Pike was on a ventilator after failed execution
Christa Pike was placed on a ventilator and remained unconscious in hospital after her failed execution in Tennessee, her attorneys said in a court filing Friday, October 2. They said hospital staff were working to save her life and, as of late Thursday, trying to clear two doses of the execution drug.
Pike's attorneys said they believed problems with the IV lines caused pentobarbital to enter her body rather than her bloodstream. Their filing said execution team members apparently failed to recognize that the lines were incorrectly placed or that the veins had failed.
The lawyers said the team prepared and administered a second dose of pentobarbital instead of correcting the problem they described. State officials have not provided an explanation of what went wrong.
Governor Bill Lee demanded a review of execution procedures and indefinitely postponed Pike's execution and another scheduled for this year. Republican Tennessee lawmakers said the state should examine whether to stop single-drug lethal injections and consider other methods of carrying out death sentences.
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