Medical experts have questioned whether Christa Pike is competent to understand why she would be put to death should the state try to execute her again after her botched lethal injection.
Pike, 50, a Tennessee death row inmate, is awake and speaking after the failed execution left her unconscious and on a ventilator. She survived two doses of pentobarbital as executioners attempted to put her to death on September 30 for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer.
Lawyers report 'medically unprecedented' recovery
Six days after the botched execution, her lawyers issued an update on her health, saying her arms were left burned and blistered. Attorneys for Pike said in a statement: “Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care. Despite the severe damage she endured to her arms, she is still handcuffed and shackled to the bed. Her recovery is medically unprecedented.”
Pike surviving two lethal injection doses has led to questions about competency — whether she can understand why she would be put to death. Deborah Denno, a Fordham Law professor who has studied execution methods for 36 years, said Pike has strong arguments that it would be cruel and unusual to try again, and that it would violate the prohibition on double jeopardy, trying or punishing someone twice for the same offense.
Legal experts split on double-jeopardy arguments
“She has satisfied this very, very high standard for cruel and unusual punishment,” Denno said. “She also has a very good double-jeopardy argument. They carried out every aspect of the execution. She didn’t die, but every process they intended, they did it.”
Seattle University Law Professor Michael Russo, who handled capital cases as a public defender in Los Angeles, called the failed execution horrible, but said he doubted whether the Supreme Court would stop the state from trying again on double-jeopardy grounds, should it decide to do so.
“There’s nobody else in the history of the death penalty in this country who has gone through what she’s been through,” Russo said. But, he added, “I think what this Supreme Court would say is, her sentence was to die — to be executed — not to suffer an attempt at execution.”
Recovery timeline and court proceedings
Dr. Joel Zivot, a professor of anesthesiology and surgery in Atlanta who consulted as an expert for Pike’s legal team, said the development “bodes well for a good recovery.” But, he added, it could be weeks or months before anyone knows exactly what her recovery might look like, and whether her competency could be restored to a level that might enable the state to try again to execute her. Giving an update on her hospital ward he said: “She’s still in the ICU.”
Pike’s attorneys are set to go to court Wednesday as they seek to learn more about what happened in the failed lethal injection. The attorneys are seeking a court order requiring the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve evidence, including drug lot numbers, records and other information from the September 30 attempted execution. Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles scheduled a Wednesday morning status conference in the case.
Pike’s attorneys said in their Tuesday statement that they continue to ask outgoing Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to commute Pike’s sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Gov. Lee halted further executions following Pike's hospitalisation and ordered a “comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.” U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the state’s Republican candidate to replace him, called on the state to explore other methods of execution to ensure it can continue carrying out capital punishment.
