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Inmate Christa Pike, the only woman on Tennessee's death row, remains unconscious, intubated, and connected to a ventilator at a Nashville hospital after surviving two attempts at execution by lethal injection last Wednesday, according to an emergency court motion filed by her lawyers.
According to the legal document filed this Friday in the Davidson County Chancery Court, Pike, 50, was admitted to the medical center in critical condition with both arms swollen, burned, and blistered.
Medical staff are working to save her life and flush pentobarbital from her system, a highly alkaline and caustic drug that acts like a chemical burn when it seeps into tissues.
According to the filing, the prison team used at least seven needles to attempt to establish a peripheral line, with one of them even bending at a 90-degree angle upon removal.
Amid the pain, Pike herself tried to indicate to the officials where to place the needles; she was heard sobbing and gasping, and even exclaimed: "I feel like my arm is going to burst," and asked: "Is it supposed to happen like this?"
The 50-year-old woman had spent nearly three decades on death row in Tennessee after being convicted in 1996 of the murder of her fellow student Colleen Slemme, and she was set to become the first woman executed in the state since 1819.
Following the incident, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee suspended all remaining executions scheduled for this year and ordered an independent review of what occurred with the support of the Attorney General's Office, while Pike's defense is requesting the immediate preservation of all evidence and a commutation of her sentence.
According to local media, Pike's case is the second failed execution attempt in Tennessee this year.
[Publicidad]