Christa Pike on Ventilator After Botched Tennessee Execution, Attorneys Say

Christa Pike was placed on a ventilator and unconscious in a hospital in the hours following her failed execution in Tennessee, her attorneys said in a court filing Friday. Hospital staff were reportedly working to save Pike’s life and clear the drug pentobarbital from her system, which the state uses for executions.

Pike’s attorneys believe that problems with the IV lines caused the lethal drug to flow into her body instead of her bloodstream, leading to the failed execution. "Apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown and that the pentobarbital was, in whole or in part, entering Ms. Pike’s body," they wrote. According to the filing, instead of addressing this issue, the execution team prepared and administered a backup set of pentobarbital syringes.

State officials have not yet provided an explanation for what went wrong during the execution attempt. The execution team reportedly worked for an hour to administer the lethal drugs, with Pike’s defense lawyer Randy Spivey noting at least seven needles were inserted into her left arm. Neither the initial nor the backup dose of pentobarbital appeared to be effective, and Pike was reportedly still snoring when the execution chamber’s microphone was cut off more than an hour into the procedure.

This failed execution has prompted calls for answers from both proponents and opponents of the death penalty. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has ordered an independent review of the state’s execution procedures and has indefinitely postponed Pike’s execution, as well as another execution scheduled for later this year. Some Republican political leaders in Tennessee have suggested reviewing the state's use of single-drug lethal injections and considering alternative methods for carrying out death sentences.