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A Tennessee death row inmate remained unconscious on a ventilator Friday after surviving the state’s failed attempt to execute her this week, and her attorneys accused prison officials of ignoring months of warnings that the lethal injection could go catastrophically wrong.
Christa Pike was scheduled to be executed for the 1995 torture killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. She would have become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years before Wednesday night’s execution attempt failed.
Pike’s attorneys filed an emergency motion in Davidson County Chancery Court seeking an order requiring the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve evidence related to what they described as the state’s “botched attempted execution.”
They argue the records are critical to determining what happened, protecting Pike’s legal rights and ensuring accountability.
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“Christa remains critically ill and is receiving medical care for the devastating effects of Wednesday night’s events,” attorneys Stephen Ferrell and Luke Ihnen said in a statement Friday. “As detailed in today’s filing, Christa remains hospitalized following Wednesday night’s failed execution attempt.
“She is critically ill, unconscious, intubated and receiving breathing assistance through a ventilator,” they added. “She is being treated for the serious effects of the pentobarbital administered during the execution attempt, including significant injuries to both arms.”
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The emergency motion paints a far more detailed picture of what Pike’s attorneys say unfolded inside the execution chamber.
Pike’s team contends the execution team struggled to establish IV access, using at least seven needles before administering two lethal doses of pentobarbital.
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The filing also alleges Pike suggested where staff should try inserting the IV, one needle was bent at a 90-degree angle when it was removed, and she could be heard crying, whimpering and breathing loudly throughout the procedure.
Pike also allegedly told those carrying out the execution, “My arm feels like it’s about to burst open,” before later asking, “Does this happen like that?”
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The motion says Pike arrived at the hospital with both arms “swollen, burned, and blistered.” It also says medical experts have compared pentobarbital to “bleach” or “Drano,” describing it as a highly caustic substance capable of burning skin, tissue and veins.
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Pike’s attorneys contend none of those complications should have come as a surprise.
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Months before the execution, they warned the state that Pike’s thrombocytosis, post-traumatic stress disorder, small veins and history of difficult needle insertion made it significantly more likely prison officials would struggle to establish and maintain IV access. They also warned improper delivery of pentobarbital could result in “serious illness, needless suffering, and/or prolonged or lingering death.”
“Her concerns were called ‘speculation’; they were laughed off, scoffed at, and dismissed,” the motion states. “In the words of one media witness: we have a lot of questions and the Department of Correction has a lot of answers that it needs to provide to the public about what happened here. We agree.”
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The attorneys further contend the execution team failed to recognize that Pike’s IV lines had failed before administering another dose of pentobarbital.
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“Apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown and that the pentobarbital was, in whole or in part, entering Ms. Pike’s body,” the motion states.
“Instead of remedying this failure, TDOC elected to prepare a backup set of syringes (if they were not also prepared earlier that day) and then administered another lethal dose of pentobarbital.”
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The attorneys argue preserving evidence from the execution attempt is now critical as the case moves forward.
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“In light of the manifest violation of Ms. Pike’s constitutional rights, the actionable nature of that violation, and the reasonable foreseeability of litigation, the Defendants have an affirmative duty to preserve all relevant physical, written, and electronic evidence,” the motion states.
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Fox News Digital reached out to the Tennessee Department of Correction and the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office for comment.
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“The governor has appropriately called for an investigation. We need to know what happened,” a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office said.
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