Pike survives lethal injection

Christa Pike, fifty years old, survived two shots of pentobarbital at a Tennessee execution on Wednesday and was receiving lifesaving care at a Nashville hospital on Thursday.

First survival in modern era

It is the first time in the modern era of the U.S. death penalty that a person received lethal injection drugs and survived, according to the nonpartisan Death Penalty Information Center.

Worst botched execution ever

Robin Maher, director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said on Thursday: "This failed attempt is the worst we've ever seen and unlike any other botched execution in the modern era."

“This failed attempt is the worst we've ever seen and unlike any other botched execution in the modern era.”

Governor orders investigation

Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, ordered an independent investigation of the lethal injection process late on Wednesday and suspended executions in Tennessee till the end of the year.

Lee calls it a tragedy

Lee told reporters on Thursday the botched execution was a tragedy but stopped short of suggesting he might commute Pike's sentence to life in prison.

Lee defends death penalty

Lee said: "The people of Tennessee have determined that the death penalty is the appropriate penalty for the most heinous crimes in the state." He had denied Pike's clemency request on Monday.

“The people of Tennessee have determined that the death penalty is the appropriate penalty for the most heinous crimes in the state.”

Pike's thirty-year death row

Pike was convicted of the nineteen ninety-five murder of then nineteen-year-old Colleen Slemmer and has been on death row for more than thirty years.

Would be first woman in two centuries

Pike would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than two hundred years. Only eighteen women have been executed in the U.S. since nineteen seventy-six.

Multiple needle punctures

Randy Spivey, an attorney with the Tennessee Office of the Post-Conviction Defender, said Pike's left arm was pierced by at least seven needles and her right arm turned purple.

Pike described chemical torture

Pike said her arm felt like it was about to explode. Her attorneys suggested the drugs entered her arm tissue instead of her bloodstream and described it as chemical torture.

Pike tried to help executioners

Pike remained cooperative throughout multiple execution attempts and tried to help her executioners. She said: "Please try up on my shoulder higher. Please try here. Please try here."

“Please try up on my shoulder higher. Please try here. Please try here.”

Breathing heard an hour later

Witnesses said Pike could still be heard breathing and snoring an hour after executioners administered two rounds of pentobarbital, including when the curtain closed and witnesses were escorted out.

Concerns about vein access

Pike's lawyers had raised concerns that her small veins and medical history of thrombocytosis might compromise her execution. Their petitions to use alternative methods like hanging were denied.

Prior failed execution in May

In June, Pike's attorneys pointed to Tennessee's failed execution of Tony Carruthers in May, when medical staff failed to find a vein. Lee granted Carruthers a one-year reprieve.

Calls for commutation and alternatives

Pike's attorneys called on the governor to commute her sentence to life in prison. Sen. Marsha Blackburn called for the state to bring back the electric chair. Cameron Sexton proposed expanding alternative methods.

Victim's mother frustrated

May Martinez, mother of murder victim Colleen Slemmer, said the execution process was an injustice to her family. She expressed frustration about being kept in the prison for hours without answers.

Calls to abolish death penalty

Democratic state senator Heidi Campbell called the incident a moral catastrophe costing the state five hundred thousand dollars and renewed calls to abolish the death penalty entirely.

U.N. calls for abolition

U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk said Pike's case shows why the death penalty should be abolished, calling the prolonged suffering from multiple failed attempts abhorrent and cruel.