Christa Pike's lawyers reveal new details of how botched injection unfolded including chilling 'doubt'
The team carrying out Christa Pike's execution were apparently worried they had 'blown' the death row inmate's vein as they attempted to administer a lethal dose of pentobarbital.
Pike spent 30 years waiting to be put to death for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, but the 50-year-old criminal survived two doses of a lethal injection.
She went on to be hospitalized and is now back at the Debra K Johnson Rehabilitation Center.
"She is grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances. She is continuing to receive medical care at the prison, and we will continue to track her recovery," her lawyers said in a statement after she was discharged.
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Now Pike's lawyer, Randy Spivey, has shared further insight into what happened on September 30 (the day of her scheduled execution).
Apparently the Tennessee execution team tasked with setting an intravenous line into Pike's arm repeatedly warned that her vein might be 'blowing' – but they went ahead anyway.
Per her laywer, the intravenous (IV) team used up to 10 needles as they sought to establish a line, The Guardian reports. After 20 minutes of attempts, they then shared their concerns about Pike's vein. Reportedly one of member of the IV team said: "It’s either blood or blown, I need to know."
They had been using a 20-gauge needle that they ultimately decided wasn't long enough.
Spivey also recalled: "Member two and IV team member three inspected the insertion site and poked it. Both said that they 'can’t tell'."
After the botched execution, the death row inmate was on a ventilator and her lawyers did not expect her to survive. However, by means of a miracle, Pike woke up and began talking and walking with assistance.
The Death Penalty Information Center says Pike is the first person to survive after receiving lethal injection drugs during an execution. Meanwhile, the Tennessee Department of Correction has not said what went wrong in the execution.
Medical and lethal injection experts have focused on whether a problem with the IV line caused the drug to pool in her tissue instead of entering her bloodstream.
Pike’s lawyers wrote in a court filing that 'apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realise that the IV lines were not correctly placed'.
The failed execution brought renewed scrutiny to how Tennessee carries out death sentences and Tennessee governor Bill Lee went on to postpone the state’s only other scheduled execution this year (that of Gary Wayne Sutton's which was supposed to take place in December) and ordered a review of what went wrong.
It remains unclear whether there will be a second attempt to execute Pike.
Following the September 30 debacle, Americans were asked if they think death row inmates like Pike should face a second execution if the first one fails.
The poll, carried out by Reuters/Ipsos, found that 39 percent of those who took part agreed that prisoners who survive a first execution attempt who should be allowed to live out the rest of their life in prison.
Topics: Christa Pike, Crime, US News, Death Row
Niamh Shackleton