Attorneys ask for evidence to be preserved following Christa Pike’s attempted execution
By Rebekah Riess, Devon M. Sayers, CNN
(CNN) — Attorneys for Christa Pike, who survived Tennessee’s attempt to put her to death via lethal injection last week, will be in court Wednesday as they seek to preserve relevant evidence in her twice-botched execution.
Pike has been hospitalized for nearly a week after being injected with two ostensibly fatal doses of pentobarbital, her attorneys said. On Tuesday, her attorneys said, she was finally conscious and speaking – though she continues to receive critical medical care and suffered “severe damage” to her arms.
“Her recovery is medically unprecedented,” the attorneys said in a statement Tuesday evening. “Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery.”
Pike’s lawyers filed the emergency motion Friday to ensure the preservation of evidence, alleging the Tennessee Department of Correction inflicted “a cruel and unusual punishment” on Pike “through its deliberate indifference to her basic medical needs and reckless disregard of basic medical practices and their own lethal injection protocol.”
A hearing on that motion is scheduled for noon ET in Davidson County Chancery Court in Nashville.
Those administering the lethal injection attempted to gain IV access to Pike using “at least seven needles,” the emergency motion reads. “One needle was bent in a 90-degree angle when it was removed.”
The attorneys first alerted the state about its duty to preserve evidence at 1:09 a.m. ET on Thursday, hours after Pike’s botched execution, the emergency motion points out. Pike’s legal team is now looking to preserve relevant physical, written and electronic evidence.
When Pike arrived at the Nashville-area hospital, her attorneys said in the motion, her arms were “swollen, burned, and blistered.” Pentobarbital “burns upon contact, including skin, tissue, and veins,” they said.
Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for the brutal 1995 killing of Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student at a job training facility.
The state Attorney General’s Office hasn’t indicated whether it will seek to put her to death again, Stephen Ferrell, one of Pike’s attorneys, told CNN on Sunday. Pike’s lawyers have called on Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to commute her sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
After Pike’s failed execution, Lee suspended executions for the rest of the year, announcing Thursday a third party will do “a thorough and comprehensive” review of her case. Lee on Saturday also announced Correction Commissioner Frank Strada would step down later this month following backlash over Pike’s failed execution.
Republican US Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who is running to replace Lee as governor in January, called to bring back the electric chair and “deliver justice for these victims swiftly.”
“The state of Tennessee has got to start telling its people exactly what it is doing, so that in the democratic process, the people of Tennessee can decide if that’s what they want to be done in their name,” Ferrell said Sunday. “This torturous execution leaves so many questions that the state of Tennessee will refuse to answer.”
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CNN’s Eduardo Cuevas, Eric Levenson and Ryan Young contributed to this report.
