Christa Pike, 50, survived an attempted execution in Tennessee on Wednesday after being administered two doses of a lethal drug. Her legal team reportedly said she was "audibly snoring" during the procedure. Pike had been scheduled to become the first woman put to death in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
Execution Attempt and Aftermath
The Tennessee Department of Correction said it had followed every step of the state's lawful, established execution protocol approved by the attorney general's office. In a statement, it wrote: "The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening. Christa Pike has been transported to an off-site medical facility."
The execution was called off following two unsuccessful attempts to deliver the fatal drugs, with Pike subsequently transported to hospital. Her legal representatives stated she was in a critical condition and undergoing lifesaving treatment, while indicating she may have sustained brain damage during the mishandled execution.
Pike's Recorded Concerns
Pike reportedly characterised a bungled lethal injection as her "worst nightmare" in a prison recording made merely weeks prior to her own unsuccessful execution. She had been apprehensive her execution might go awry after another inmate, Tony Carruthers, endured suffering when his lethal injection was halted in May.
"The concerns I have on our lethal injection method are simply that I do not have good veins, and I'm worried about our physician not being qualified to start a central line on me," Pike said in a recording obtained by the New York Times. "Tony Carruthers lived out my worst nightmare. Detail for detail. And I don't want to go through that," she added.
Remorse and Legal Reactions
Pike also expressed concerns regarding the substances used during her execution, noting they had been likened to the chemical drain cleaner Drano. "The drug... supposedly burns very bad," she said. "And so that sounds scary to me because they used the word Drano in speaking about this drug, and the thought of suffocating and drowning on my own bodily fluid and blood isn't very appealing to me."
In the recordings, Pike also revealed she was "very remorseful" for the killing, despite not experiencing those feelings initially. "I'm very remorseful now," she said. "I wasn't in the beginning when I first caught this charge. I didn't care what I had done or who I had done it to. The horror of the pain that I caused her family, my family, my co-defendant's families, I have affected this world in such a negative way when all I ever wanted to do was care for people and leave love. I have done the opposite of that and that pains me."
Maria DeLiberato, representing Tony Carruthers, stated Pike had been placed "right back in that room with Tony" during his attempted execution last May after her unsuccessful lethal injection. "We are joining the calls for a commutation for Christa, so she never experiences this torture again," DeLiberato said. "Moreover, we continue to ask the same for Tony, who is still recovering from his botched attempt and fighting to prove he was wrongfully convicted - all while he remains at risk of another execution attempt."
