Christa Pike, a death row inmate who survived two lethal injections, remains in hospital in critical condition, her attorney said. Stephen Ferrell said Pike, 50, is on a ventilator.
“We don't really know the prognosis yet and may not know for several days,” Ferrell said. “If she recovers, she may not fully recover,” he added, speaking to CNN.
Doctors have not explained survival
Ferrell said doctors have not explained how Pike survived the two lethal injections. “I need to emphasise that we are not consulting directly with the doctors. She has a medical power of attorney that gives us information,” he said.
Pike’s attorney also said she “is being treated for the serious effects of the pentobarbital administered during the execution attempt, including significant injuries to both arms”. She survived two full doses of pentobarbital during the failed execution attempt on Wednesday evening.
Executions suspended and politicians respond
Ferrell confirmed that the Tennessee governor has suspended all executions until the end of the year. “I think that at the very least the governor should commute Ms Pike's death sentence to a life sentence,” he said.
Republican Gov. Bill Lee, whose term ends in January, halted the one remaining execution scheduled for this year and ordered an independent investigation into the state’s capital punishment system after Pike’s failed execution. On Saturday, he said the commissioner of the Department of Correction will step down.
Politicians are now considering new ways to execute Pike. U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the state's Republican candidate for governor, said the two failed lethal injections “should not be grounds to halt carrying out the death penalty”. The state of Tennessee, she added, needs to reevaluate the way it carries out executions. “If it's lethal injection, if it is electric chair, what we do know is we have to find a way to do this — and do it successfully,” Blackburn said.
House Speaker Cameron Sexton added: “We want to broaden it, include more methods. What those are as of today, I’m not sure. But I don’t think there’s any method that’s off the table at this point.”
Execution methods and Pike’s background
Death by electricity or gas is authorised in nine states, including five that specify nitrogen gas. Five states authorise a firing squad. Florida, which leads the US in executions this year, uses a three-drug lethal injection that includes a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart.
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 torture and slaying of a classmate, Colleen Slemmer. She was age 18 at the time and became one of the youngest women sent to death row. Her solicitor Randy Spivey said the execution was “inefficient, cruel, and torturous”.
