3 October :Christa Pike remains critically ill in a Tennessee hospital after an attempt to carry out her death sentence by lethal injection failed, with the drugs administered to her not resulting in her death. She was subsequently taken to a hospital in Nashville, where she is now unconscious and receiving treatment with the assistance of a ventilator.
Pike’s lawyers disclosed details of her condition in court documents filed on Friday, 2 October. The documents said efforts were being made to remove pentobarbital, the drug used in the execution attempt, from her body. Her condition remains critical, according to the filing.
Two lethal injections were administered to Pike on Wednesday night as part of the execution procedure. According to her lawyers, she struggled for an extended period after the injections, cried and breathed heavily. However, she did not die within the prescribed period.
She was subsequently transferred to hospital because of the situation. No detailed information about her medical condition was initially made public. The court filing by her lawyers on Friday revealed that she was unconscious and on a ventilator.
Pike was convicted of killing her classmate Colleen Slemmer in 1995 with the assistance of a male friend. Pike was 18 and Slemmer was 19 at the time of the killing. After spending decades in prison, authorities moved to carry out her death sentence.
However, the failure of the lethal injection to cause her death meant the execution could not be completed according to the planned procedure. Her lawyers have now appealed for clemency.
One of Pike’s lawyers argued that she had faced one of the harshest punishments imposed on a death-row prisoner in US history and called for her death sentence to be commuted.
Source: BBC