Lee halts Tennessee’s remaining executions, orders third-party review
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has halted the state’s remaining executions for the rest of the year and ordered a “comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred” in the 30 September execution, according to the Guardian. Lee had earlier blocked Pike’s request for clemency before the procedure went ahead.
Lawyer counted seven needles in Pike’s arm; one appeared bent
After the botched execution attempt, one of Pike’s lawyers called the process “cruel and torturous” and said he had counted seven needles in Pike’s left arm, “one of which appeared to be bent when it was pulled from her,” according to the Guardian. Pike had lifted her head from the execution gurney to say her arms were burning as the drug was administered.
Medical experts cited by the Guardian have speculated about what went wrong. Possibilities include that some or all of the pentobarbital missed her vein and entered tissue, that one of her problematic veins — flagged by her lawyers months earlier — blew, that the drug was faulty, or a combination.
Pike’s lawyers had warned the state before the execution that officials might struggle to locate her veins and could cause her suffering in the process, the Guardian reports. The state pushed to proceed, and the US Supreme Court allowed the execution to move forward.
Pike walks for the first time; lawyers cite childhood abuse and new diagnoses
Pike, 50, was taken to hospital unconscious but alive from Tennessee’s execution chamber on 30 September after receiving two doses of the barbiturate pentobarbital, according to the Guardian. The Guardian characterized the recovery as “a dramatic turnaround” after Pike was declared brain dead on Monday before waking up and beginning to speak on Tuesday. The Guardian reported that her ordeal has “shocked many in the US and overseas and galvanized critics of the death penalty.”
This week, Pike walked around her hospital room for the first time since the execution, her lawyer Stephen Ferrell told the BBC. “What’s been described to me is that physically there’s quite a bit going on, that her arms are very injured and she’s not able to use them very much,” Ferrell said. “She is up and walking for the first time today, but just around the room, not very far.”
Ferrell described Pike’s mental state as mixed. “I think it’s kind of good and bad. Good that she is fairly with it, but she’s also somewhat foggy. She can lose her train of thought really easily and forgets where she’s going,” he said. He added: “I assume [Pike’s condition] will keep improving, but there could be some permanent damage. We don’t know that yet.” Pike’s legal team is seeking psychological support for her, support Ferrell said is “clearly necessary now.”
On Wednesday, Pike’s lawyers described her as “angry and confused,” and Randy Spivey, another attorney, said she was unable to move her arms and has pneumonia and a blood clot. Despite her condition, Pike remained in restraints, her team said — shackled to her hospital bed by her feet and right arm.
Pike’s attorneys have argued that her original legal team failed to present evidence about the sexual and physical abuse she suffered during childhood, the Guardian reports. She was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Three decades on death row for the 1995 killing of Colleen Slemmer
Pike has been on death row, isolated, for three decades, according to the Guardian. In 1995, she was 18 and her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp was 17 when they killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, one of their classmates at the Knoxville Job Corps in Tennessee. According to prosecutors, Pike was worried Slemmer was trying to take Shipp away from her; together, they lured Slemmer into a wooded area and tortured and killed her.
Shipp was convicted of first-degree murder in 1997 and received a life sentence with the possibility of parole. Pike has never denied her involvement in Slemmer’s killing, the Guardian reports. Because she was 18, she was sentenced to death.