Christa Pike Discharged From Hospital After Botched Execution

Christa Pike has been discharged from the hospital after her failed execution two weeks ago. 

NPR reports that Pike is back in prison at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Tennessee. Pike’s attorneys, Luke Ihnen, Randy Spivey, Stephen Ferrell, and Kelly Gleason, released a statement announcing her discharge. 

“She is grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances,” the attorneys said.

Pike has understandably sparked much controversy and confusion over the last two weeks. Pike was set to be the first woman executed in the state of Tennessee in over 200 years for her role in the torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995. On Sept. 30, the state attempted to execute Pike via lethal injection. After giving her the first dose of pentobarbital, Pike was still awake and was asking if she was supposed to feel a burning sensation in her arm. 

The executioners then injected her with a second dose of the drug, which is when Pike went unconscious. When Pike could be heard loudly snoring, the execution was canceled, and Pike was immediately transferred to a hospital. 

So what happens now? Well, no one can say with any real accuracy. Pike is the first person to survive an execution attempt via lethal injection. While Tony Carruthers also had a botched execution in Tennessee earlier this year, that was due to the executioners being unable to find a vein to place the IV. As a result of the failed attempt, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee granted Carruthers a year-long reprieve. It’s worth noting that Dr. Mark Fowler, who oversaw Carruthers’s execution, was also the doctor overseeing Pike’s execution.

Generally, the drugs used for lethal injection are fairly effective in one dose. The fact that Pike survived two doses just goes to show how badly the executioners botched the process. In a preliminary court hearing, Pike’s attorneys allege that the executioners didn’t check to see if the IV was properly placed in a vein, causing the drug to spread through Pike’s body instead of entering her bloodstream. 

Lee called off the remaining executions Tennessee had scheduled for the year and ordered an investigation into what went wrong with Pike’s execution. Pike’s lawyers did attempt to have the state change Pike’s method of execution, as she has unusually difficult veins to access.

“When I looked at what the lawyers had warned officials about, they seemed remarkably prescient about what could go wrong,” Robin Maher, director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, told USA Today. “All of the things they predicted happened. It is bewildering why Tennessee officials continued to ignore the warnings.”

Judge I’Ashea Myles of the Davidson County Chancery Court in Nashville ordered the prison officials to preserve all evidence, such as messages, connected to Pike’s failed execution. Former Tennessee prisons chief Frank Strada announced his resignation shortly after the botched execution. Strada has a history of failed executions in both Tennessee and Arizona, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the issues endemic to his tenure in Arizona wound up playing a role in Pike’s failed execution. 

While Pike’s attorneys are advocating for her death sentence to be commuted to life without parole, Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, has continually advocated for the execution to go through as originally planned. Martinez was present during the execution and called the process “a mess.” She added that state officials “owe me big time,” as a result of the failed execution. 

Now that Pike has been discharged, we can only wait and see what the state of Tennessee decides to do in this unprecedented situation. 

SEE ALSO:

Christa Pike Awake And Speaking In Hospital After Failed Execution

Attorneys Say Christa Pike Is Eating And Moving After Failed Execution

Tennessee Execution Fails After 2 Injections Of Lethal Drug