Christa Pike’s attorney counted a crooked needle among the seven needles jammed into the arm of his 50-year-old client during the state of Tennessee’s botched attempt to execute her on Wednesday.
A court filing from Pike’s attorneys said the “critically ill” convicted killer was unconscious and remained on a ventilator Friday.
One of the needles meant to deliver a fatal dose of pentobarbital to the death row inmate was bent at a 90-degree angle when it was removed from her body, according to a CBS review of her lawyers’ documents.
She is said to have cried, whimpered and breathed heavily throughout the aborted execution effort. Pike was then rushed by ambulance to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Wednesday evening.
Her attorneys suspect that problems with the death chamber’s IV lines failed to deliver the double-dose of short-acting barbiturate meant to kill Pike into her bloodstream.
Lawyers said the state had previously been told that executing Pike via lethal injection could be complicated by her history of uncooperative veins and a pre-existing blood condition.
Witnesses to the execution said Pike was cooperative with officials working to end her life. At one point she asked if what she was experienced seemed normal and said “My arm feels like it’s about to burst.”
Doctors worked to remove pentobarbital from her system on Friday, according to records viewed by the Tennessean. Her lawyers asked a Tennessee court to compel the state to preserve evidence linked to the failed procedure that left Pike hospitalized.
She was convicted of torturing and killing 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995. The victim’s mother called the failed execution “a mess.”
With News Wire Services