Christa Pike has remained unconscious and on a ventilator four days after a failed execution attempt in Tennessee, her attorney reported.
The execution, carried out with two doses of pentobarbital, left Pike with burned and blistered arms and required hospitalization. She survived the lethal injection but has not regained consciousness.
Assistant federal defender Stephen Ferrell told CNN that the prognosis is uncertain and that the legal team has not seen Pike. A medical power of attorney is only informing them of her condition, and they are unsure how much physical or mental torture she may have endured. Ferrell said that doctors are still working to clear the high barbiturate dosage from her system.
The case has attracted additional scrutiny after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a federal appeals court ruling that had halted the execution to allow a review of whether the jury should have considered Pike’s alleged childhood sexual abuse. Pike’s attorneys have asked a court to preserve all written records, communications, images and video from the execution and are seeking to have her death sentence commuted to life imprisonment. Tennessee officials have faced criticism for keeping execution details secret, and the resignation of the Tennessee Department of Correction commissioner has prompted an independent investigation ordered by Governor Bill Lee.
