Judge orders preservation of evidence in Tennessee's failed Pike execution

Lawyers describe Pike’s condition as she recovers from procedure

A Tennessee judge on Wednesday ordered the state Department of Correction to preserve all evidence from the failed execution of death-row inmate Christa Pike, siding with a motion from Pike’s legal team to preserve the evidence.

Judge I’Ashea Myles instructed the department to maintain “anything that was in the actual room” where the execution was supposed to take place, including any waste or anything related to the lethal-injection drugs used, the order said.

Pike received two doses of pentobarbital — a sedative that at least 17 states use for capital punishment — before the Tennessee Department of Correction was unable to properly administer the lethal drugs, halting the procedure. She was rushed to a Nashville-area hospital, where she was intubated and placed on a ventilator, her lawyers said in a court filing. Hospital staff worked to clear the pentobarbital from her system, according to the filing.

Randy Spivey, one of her lawyers, said Wednesday that Pike had woken up after being thought brain dead. “On Monday night, it was our understanding that Christa was brain dead and that life support would be removed the next day,” Spivey said. “But on Tuesday, to the shock of everyone, including me, including her team, including the medical team, Christa woke up and began talking.”

Pike asked where she was, Spivey said. “She is angry and confused about everything right now,” he added.

Spivey said Pike, 50, faces a long road to recovery. She has a blood clot in one of her arms, pneumonia, and is unable to swallow, he said. She is also unable to move either of her arms, and it is unknown what function she will regain, according to Spivey.

Another Pike attorney, Luke Ihnen, said preserving the evidence was part of the effort to uncover what went wrong. “Christa, the court, the media, and the public should not simply take the state’s word about what happened last Wednesday,” Ihnen said. “Their word is shrouded in secrecy and legal jargon in attempts to obfuscate and obscure what really happened.”

The state opposed the preservation motion, citing a pending independent investigation of the failed execution and an existing federal court order to preserve evidence. Assistant Attorney General John Ayers said Wednesday that the state was already taking steps to preserve the evidence, even without Judge Myles’s order. The Tennessee Department of Correction said it followed established protocol and that the drug has consistently been effective.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee halted executions in the state after the failed attempt to execute Pike. Lee said he had ordered a third-party review to determine why the execution failed.

Pike’s attorneys had previously warned the court that her small veins made it likely she would experience unnecessary suffering and terror from lethal injections. When she was admitted to the hospital after the procedure, both of her arms were swollen, burned and blistered, her lawyers said in the court filing. Pentobarbital burns upon contact with skin, tissue and veins, they added.

Pike was sentenced to be executed for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer. Her legal team has called on the governor to commute her death sentence. Asked Wednesday whether Pike would face a new execution order, Ayers said he could not say, and that the decision was “within the purview of the Tennessee Supreme Court.”