USA. – Christa Pike (50), the American death row inmate whose failed execution occurred last week in Tennessee, has regained consciousness and can speak again according to her legal representatives. Pike continues to receive treatment in a hospital after two doses of the lethal drug pentobarbital were unsuccessfully administered to her on 30 September.
Her lawyers say her condition remains uncertain and that she faces a likely long recovery. Pike's arms sustained serious damage, including burns and blisters, during the execution attempt. They argue there may have been a problem with the intravenous lines and that the drug did not properly enter her bloodstream.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said after the failed execution that the state's established protocol was followed and that Pike was transported to a medical facility. Pike's lawyers have meanwhile filed a court order to preserve evidence about the execution attempt, including medical details, records and other documentation. A court hearing is scheduled for Wednesday. They are also asking that Tennessee's governor, Bill Lee, commute her death sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Lee ordered an independent investigation following the incident and postponed another scheduled execution in Tennessee for the rest of this year. The head of the Department of Correction also announced he will step down from his position.
Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer the previous year. She was 18 years old when Slemmer was killed. According toAssociated Press Pike is believed to be the first person in the USA to have survived a complete failed execution attempt by lethal injection.
Following the failure, President Trump approved the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan to be carried out by firing squad.
Sources: Tennessee Department of Correction, Associated Press, CBS News
This article is an automatic English translation of a Nuusflits article originally published in Afrikaans. Read the Afrikaans original.
