Judge Orders Tennessee to Preserve Evidence From Christa Pike’s Botched Execution

A Tennessee judge has ordered state officials to preserve all evidence related to the botched execution attempt of convicted murderer Christa Pike, as concerns grow over her medical condition and the circumstances surrounding the failed procedure.

The order was issued Wednesday during a hearing in Nashville, where Judge I’Ashea Myles directed the state to preserve anything that was present in the execution chamber during the attempted execution, including drugs, intravenous lines and tubing.

The development came as Pike’s lawyers accused Tennessee officials of withholding or removing evidence that could become important in future legal challenges.

Pike wakes after failed execution

Pike, 50, was taken from Tennessee’s execution chamber to hospital last Wednesday after surviving two doses of the barbiturate pentobarbital that were intended to end her life.

She was initially unconscious and placed on a ventilator, with doctors uncertain about her prognosis.

Pike regained consciousness on Tuesday and has since been described by her legal team as confused and seriously ill.

“The first thing she said was: ‘Where am I and who are you?’,” one of her lawyers said.

Her lawyers said she is suffering from pneumonia and a blood clot and is unable to move either of her badly injured arms.

Attorney Randy Spivey said Pike remained confused about what had happened and had been asking about several people, including members of her legal team and the victim’s family.

“I think she is angry and confused about everything right now,” Spivey said.

He later described the condition of her hands and arms, saying it remained unclear what function she might eventually regain.

Lawyers seek evidence from execution chamber

Pike’s legal team told the court that evidence from the failed execution could be crucial if Tennessee seeks to carry out another execution in the future.

Attorney Luke Ihnen accused state officials of “secreting away” evidence and argued that the materials used during the procedure could help establish what went wrong.

“The state has made no promises that Ms Pike will not be subject to a future execution, and the evidence that we are seeking to preserve now is relevant for any future challenge that she makes, because as we pled in January, the same thing is likely to happen,” Ihnen said.

Judge Myles subsequently ordered the state to preserve material from the execution chamber.

Pike remains restrained in hospital

Despite her medical condition, Pike remains restrained to her hospital bed, according to her lawyers.

Spivey told the court that Pike was shackled by her feet and right arm and said medical staff had asked Tennessee correctional authorities to remove the restraints.

“Based on our understanding, medical staff have asked that the shackles be removed and have been denied that request [by the Tennessee correction department],” he told the judge.

Her legal team asked the court to intervene over the restraints.

Questions over what went wrong

Witnesses to the execution reportedly heard Pike breathing heavily after the first injection was administered.

Her lawyers have said she later complained that her arms were burning as the drugs were administered. Spivey previously described the procedure as “cruel and torturous” and said he counted seven needles in Pike’s left arm, including one that appeared bent when it was removed.

Before the execution, Pike’s lawyers had warned that officials could have difficulty accessing her veins and that the procedure could cause significant suffering. Despite those concerns, the execution proceeded after the US Supreme Court allowed Tennessee to move forward.

Medical experts have raised several possible explanations for the failed execution, including the possibility that some of the drug entered surrounding tissue instead of the bloodstream, that a problematic vein ruptured or that there was an issue with the drug itself. The precise cause has yet to be established.

Pike’s murder conviction

Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, who was 17, killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Tennessee in 1995.

The three were classmates at Knoxville Job Corps.

Prosecutors said Pike feared that Slemmer was attempting to take Shipp away from her. The couple lured Slemmer into a wooded area, where she was tortured and killed.

Shipp was convicted of first-degree murder in 1997 and sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.

Pike has never denied her involvement in Slemmer’s killing. She was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Because she was 18 at the time of the crime, Pike was legally eligible for the death penalty and was sentenced to death. She has spent about three decades on death row.