UN calls Christa Pike's failed execution 'abhorrent and cruel'

Pike is conscious six days after Tennessee’s botched execution, attorneys say

The United Nations human rights office has called Christa Pike’s failed execution “abhorrent and cruel” and urged Tennessee not to pursue another attempt to execute her, according to a statement issued in the days following the botched lethal injection. “Prolonged suffering — physical and mental — arising from multiple failed execution attempts is abhorrent and cruel. And there are key fair trial questions still unresolved,” the U.N. office said in an online statement, calling for Tennessee to not pursue another attempt to kill her.

Her botched execution has attracted the attention of domestic and international human rights experts, including the U.N. human rights office, which said in the days that followed that her case “lays bare multiple reasons why the death penalty should be abolished.”

Pike’s attorneys said Tuesday the 50-year-old is conscious and speaking, six days after Tennessee attempted to execute her at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. “Against all odds Christa Pike is conscious, speaking and continues to receive critical medical care,” her attorneys said in a statement, adding that her prognosis “remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery.”

Pike was the first woman the state of Tennessee has tried to execute in more than 200 years. The execution took place last Wednesday, when she was strapped to a gurney and received two doses of pentobarbital, each intended to be lethal. Media witnesses reported the execution was abnormal and took longer than expected, according to UPI. After the injections, Pike remained alive and was observed snoring and breathing before being rushed to a hospital in critical condition and unconscious.

Randy Spivey of the Tennessee Office of the Post-Conviction Defender, one of Pike’s attorneys, told reporters he counted at least seven needles used by the execution team as they attempted to establish an IV line in Pike’s left arm over the span of an hour, and that one of the needles appeared bent when removed. Pike remains handcuffed and shackled to her hospital bed despite what her attorneys described as “severe damage” to her arms. UPI has asked the Tennessee Department of Correction to confirm Pike’s condition.

In their Tuesday statement, Pike’s attorneys thanked the first responders and hospital medical team who “treated Christa like a human and have provided exceptional care to her,” as well as “thousands from all over the world who sent messages offering prayers and support for Christa.”

The lawyers have previously said Governor Bill Lee’s response does not go far enough and reiterated their demand Tuesday that he commute her sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Pike was convicted in 1996 of murdering 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow Job Corps student, on Jan. 12, 1995. Tadaryl Shipp, Pike’s boyfriend at the time, was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, receiving a life sentence and a 25-year sentence, in connection with the crime. Shadolla Peters pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact, receiving six years of probation.

In the years since, her defense has argued that her trial lawyers failed to adequately present mitigating evidence of her mental health conditions and history of childhood sexual abuse, rape and neglect.

The failed execution comes as a handful of Republican-led states have ramped up executions in recent years and as the Trump administration seeks to resume federal executions and expand execution protocols, according to UPI.