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Christa Pike is “angry and confused” after regaining consciousness nearly six days after Tennessee's failed attempt to execute her, one of her lawyers said Wednesday, after a judge ordered the state to preserve evidence related to the case.
Pike, 50, survived after executioners attempted to administer two lethal doses of pentobarbital on September 30. She was sentenced to death for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of her classmate Colleen Slemmer.
“She is angry and confused about everything right now... She is very aware of what they did to her to a certain extent,” her lawyer, Randy Spivey, said during a press conference.
“As of Monday night, it was our understanding that Christa was brain dead and that life support would be withdrawn the next day,” Spivey said. “But on Tuesday, to everyone’s surprise... Christa woke up and started talking.”
Spivey, who was not with Pike when she woke up, indicated that he was told her first words were: “Where am I?” and “Who are you?”
The Death Penalty Information Center states that Pike is the only person to have survived after receiving lethal injection drugs during an execution.
Her lawyers said she still cannot move her arms or swallow, her prognosis remains uncertain, and she has a long road of recovery ahead. Her arms were burned and blistered from the execution attempt and she is handcuffed to her hospital bed, they said.
The botched execution has renewed scrutiny over how states apply the death penalty, particularly the use of lethal injection. Texas was set to carry out the first execution in the United States on Wednesday since Tennessee attempted to execute Pike.
Her lawyers want evidence to be preserved
At a hearing on Wednesday in Nashville, Pike’s lawyers asked the court to order the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve evidence from the case and provide more information on what went wrong. A judge ordered the state to preserve “anything that was in the room itself.”
“Part of the problem we are facing is that until yesterday our client was unconscious, unable to communicate with her lawyers, unable to communicate with medical providers and, without her consent,” federal public defender Luke Ihnen told the court; a new lawsuit cannot be filed.
Pike’s lawyers wanted a court order to require the prison system to preserve information about the execution attempt, including drug lot numbers, needles, execution records, and other data.
Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles indicated that her order to preserve evidence would be broad, noting that the state should maintain recordings, witness accounts, and emails, along with the drugs, syringes, intravenous lines, and other medical items.
The Tennessee Attorney General’s office maintained that a court order was unnecessary. John W. Ayers, Deputy Attorney General, stated that evidence from the execution chamber had already been collected and logged.
Republican Governor Bill Lee called the events “deeply troubling” and ordered a “comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.” The governor postponed the only other state execution scheduled for this year.
The head of the state prison system resigned after the botched execution.
Pike’s recovery is uncertain
Medical experts have focused on the possibility that a problem with the IV line caused the drug to accumulate in her tissue rather than entering her bloodstream. Pike’s lawyers wrote in their court filing that “apparently at no time did any member of the execution team realize the IV lines were not placed correctly or that the veins had blown.”
The execution began around 7:30 p.m. on September 30, when Pike was given the opportunity to make a final statement. About five minutes later, Pike lifted her head and said her arm hurt. At some point she appeared to lose consciousness, but could be heard breathing audibly until the media was escorted out of the witness room at 8:53 p.m. An ambulance arrived at the prison at 9:14 p.m. to transport Pike to a hospital.
Dr. Joel Zivot, a professor of anesthesiology and surgery in Atlanta who served as an expert advisor to Pike’s legal team, said it could be weeks or months before anyone knows exactly what her recovery might look like and whether her competency could be restored so the state could attempt to execute her again.
[Publicidad]