Death row inmate Christa Pike could face another execution attempt after surviving two lethal injections, an expert has warned. The 50-year-old killer is conscious and speaking in hospital, her lawyers confirmed six days after the botched execution in Nashville on September 30.
Survival after two lethal doses
Pike was given two typically lethal doses of pentobarbital but somehow survived. Witnesses reported hearing her snoring before she was rushed to hospital. Now questions are mounting over whether the state could try to execute her again.
Speaking to ABC news, Dr Paul A Lucas, an associate professor at East Carolina University, said the findings of a review of the failed execution will determine what happens next. He said: "If the investigation identifies problems with how the protocol was implemented the state may focus on correcting those procedures."
Questions over the procedure
Experts have suggested the drug may have entered the tissue in Pike's arm rather than her bloodstream. Her legal team alleged at least seven syringes were used during attempts to establish an IV line, with at least one being "bent in a 90-degree angle".
Her lawyers previously warned that Pike's health condition, in which she suffers from a blood-clotting condition known as thrombocytosis, would make the insertion of a needle "more difficult". They said she cooperated with the execution team and tried to help them insert the intravenous lines. But during the attempt, Pike complained that her arm felt like it was "about to burst open".
Unresolved questions and scrutiny
Dr Lucas said he was "hesitant" to predict what the state would do next, adding "there are still too many unresolved questions, beginning with Ms Pike's medical condition and the findings of the independent review."
"If officials followed the protocol as written and the execution nevertheless failed, that could raise more fundamental questions about the protocol itself," he added. "Either way, I would expect the circumstances surrounding Ms Pike's failed execution to receive significant scrutiny before Tennessee resumes executions."
He also added: "At a time when public support for capital punishment has generally declined from its historical highs, an event like this may also intensify the [debate about] how the death penalty is administered. Legally … changes in public attitudes do not by themselves determine a particular execution method is unconstitutional."
Sentence and legal appeals
Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for murdering her classmate Colleen Slemmer, a crime she committed when she was 18. She had been due to become the first woman executed in Tennessee for more than 200 years.
Her lawyers are urging the governor to commute her sentence to life in prison without parole. They described her recovery as "medically unprecedented", but said her prognosis remained unclear.
