Christa Pike is awake and speaking after failed execution, lawyers say
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The Tennessee woman who survived an execution attempt last week is conscious, speaking and receiving medical care in a development her attorneys described as "unprecedented."
In a statement Tuesday, attorneys for Christa Pike said she remains handcuffed and shackled despite having sustained significant injuries to her arms after two injections of pentobarbital failed to kill her.
The statement described her prognosis as unclear.
"At a minimum, we expect a long recovery," attorneys Randy Spivey and Kelly Gleason said. "We are incredibly grateful to the first responders and the medical team at the hospital who treated Christa like a human and have provided exceptional care to her. We also want to thank thousands from all over the world who sent messages offering prayers and support for Christa."
The statement said the attorneys will speak at a news conference Wednesday.
Prison officials administered the injections Wednesday in an attempt to execute Pike for the 1995 murder of her classmate Colleen Slemmer. Pike was 18 at the time of the murder.
After the injections failed to kill her, Pike was hospitalized and placed on a ventilator as staff members worked to clear the pentobarbital from her system, her attorneys have said.
May Martinez, the murdered teenager's mother, called the failed execution "a mess."
This week, she said Tennessee authorities need to "make this right" and make sure that Pike remains on death row.
Pike, 50, would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years.
Gov. Bill Lee ordered an independent review of the failed execution last week and paused all executions for the rest of the year. Pike's attorneys have said they believe problems with the IV lines may have caused the pentobarbital to flow into her body instead of her bloodstream.
On Saturday, Lee announced the resignation of Frank Strada, the state's top prison official.
In a statement, Strada said he believed the state Department of Correction had carried out its responsibilities "in accordance with the established protocol." But stepping aside, he added, was in the "best interest of Tennesseans as the independent review moves forward."
Slemmer's mother said that after what she has been through with the failed execution attempt, Tennessee authorities — including the governor — "owe me big time."
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I predict a flurry of legislative stop gaps in the tennessee statehouse to try and limit the financial fallout of a botched goober execution ...
Firing squad...
Quick, cheap and efficient..
Out of all the countries in the world I would have thought in the USA it would be first preference...
bloody well right ...
100% effective if administered properly. although a firing squad would be very generous. here there would be so many volunteers to pull the trigger, they could probably sell lottery tickets to aspiring shooters, have a drawing, and turn a profit ...
Well with 320 million of you mob running around I am sure there would be volunteers galore..
Just don't use the idiots that tried to bump off Trump.. couldn't hit the side of a dunny door...
they'll take each other out over gas prices in a few weeks, religion in a few months, and then the price of popcorn will triple ...
Since you were expecting a death maybe they owe you another attempt. If they are successful you can call it even.
It’s so much simpler - and usually cheaper - to just lock people up and leave them there. I get the emotions behind why people want criminals executed, but it really doesn’t accomplish much.
I would prefer investing in lowering recidivism.
Yes, I think that’s the better approach for most crimes. But for the psychos that torture and murder people, I think you just gotta lock them up in a regular cell, and throw away the key, as opposed to all the death row execution nonsense.
IMO if it accomplishes something for the victims families it not a bad thing.
So, we should continue to spend millions on an obviously flawed system all so a victim's family may, someday, decades down the road of nearly endless appeals, feel or accomplish "something"?
Personally, I think capital punishment should only be used when there is a 'preponderance' of evidence and overwhelming proof of guilt including DNA matches and then the accused is given one appeal which would go to the State Supreme court that was carrying out the prosecution and then after the single appeal is exhausted, within 10 days the person sentenced to capital punishment is allowed to choose their method of demise from fentanyl overdose to firing squad and it be carried out. No victim's family should have to wait decades for that supposed "something" and the taxpayers shouldn't have to spend millions a year keeping those sentenced to death alive.
Those are two separate issues. If the families still want justice done even after ten years then it should be done.
I am all for fixing the system so it doesn't take ten years.
For example?
Sounds like you’re volunteering to pay for it.
It’s funny…there are many families in need, and those needs cost money and resources. Medicine, food, education, clean air and water, reliable energy, etc. Certain people think it’s outrageous that we spend money on those things.
But incarcerating people at ten times the usual cost, only to eventually kill them for…revenge? Those same people think this is money well spent.
How can it be cheaper to feed them, occupy jail space, etc. for decades than to deliver justice? If you get caught red handed maliciously killing somebody, I have no mercy or desire to fund your future existence. I don’t think that is so wrong. I’m more pissed that a government can’t figure out how to do the thing that fentanyl addicts do so effortlessly.
I agree with all of that. if the judicial system has some proven killer dead to rights, enforce the dead part. why spend $60K+ per year warehousing each defective human along with all the associated down line collateral financial costs it creates. if you want to rehabilitate them into productive members of society, turn them into organ donors, low cost hazmat workers, pet food, leather goods, or compost ...
The thing is, death row involves special facilities, staff, security, and legal procedures. It all costs WAY more than just being a regular prisoner. We aren’t going to easily undo all of that and keep the death penalty. It would be easier to just get rid of the death penalty.
The death penalty should just do what it says in an efficient manner. Again, a needle full of happy bye byes is a seriously cheap, fast, and humane solution to the problem that shouldn’t even be a problem. That is the definition of justice.
Leather goods … 😆. On a serious note, can you imagine the $$$ that would result from this sick world?
... from multiple potential income streams. the possibilities are endless ...
wtf, who wouldn't want a pair of kid gloves from a real kid? or dress in a hannibal lector inspired fashion line ...
I'd put her back on death row and make her wonder about when the next attempt might be.
the state is going to be sorry they didn't mickey her IV drip and kill her off when she was in the ICU ...