Christa Pike remains alive in critical condition after failed execution, attorneys say
Officials halted the state’s remaining executions and ordered a review after Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital and was taken to a hospital.
- On Wednesday night, 50-year-old Christa Pike was rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in critical condition after surviving two doses of pentobarbital during a failed execution at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.
- Defense attorneys had previously warned that Pike's thrombocytosis blood condition would make vein access difficult, yet the Tennessee Department of Corrections proceeded, claiming they followed their established protocol.
- Witnesses in the chamber heard Pike speak and snore after receiving the drug, with attorney Randy Spivey calling the ordeal "cruel and unusual punishment" after Pike complained her arm felt "about to burst open."
- Tennessee Governor Bill Lee ordered a "comprehensive, third-party review" on Thursday and halted all state executions through year-end, including the scheduled execution of inmate Gary Wayne Sutton.
- Medical experts warn the overdose and delayed resuscitation may have caused permanent brain damage, while Vanderbilt University Medical Center faces legal obligations to treat Pike as a standard patient.
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424 Articles
7 needles, 2 lethal doses and a doctor tied to prior botch: how Christa Pike’s execut
Pike remains critical in hospital as lawyers demand her sentence be commuted; Tennessee’s governor has halted further executions while the case fuels calls to bring back the electric chair
Christa Pike survived her execution. What happened?
CNN By Dakin Andone, Eric Levenson, CNN (CNN) — After a flurry of eleventh-hour litigation, Christa Pike was strapped to a gurney Wednesday night, set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years. But after being injected with two ostensibly lethal doses of pentobarbital, Pike was still alive, snoring loudly as journalists selected to witness the execution glanced at one another, wondering what was happening. “None of it was norm…
How a Tennessee execution gone wrong connects to Arizona's capital punishment troubles
Christa Pike, the Tennessee death row prisoner who survived an attempted execution by lethal injection Wednesday night, was still in critical condition as of Thursday afternoon. Hers was the second botched execution in the Volunteer State this year. And there’s a direct line between those executions and problems Arizona had carrying out death sentences in […]
Sydney Morning Herald
Brisbane TimesUS TN failed execution lawyers
Christa Pike is in critical condition after Tennessee’s failed execution attempt, her lawyers say.
Tennessee halts executions after Christa Pike survives two lethal injection attempts
TENNESSEE - Executions in Tennessee have been halted for the rest of the year, Governor Bill Lee has said, after two attempts to execute death row inmate Christa Pike by lethal injection failed.
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