Prisoner who survived execution ‘should have death sentence thrown out’

1Christa Pike is unconscious and on a ventilator in hospital after a huge dose of drugs failed to kill her – Getty/AFPThe prisoner who survived a botched execution attempt should have her death sentence commuted, her lawyer has argued.

Christa Pike, 50, is unconscious and in a critical condition in a Tennessee hospital after two lethal injections failed to kill her on Sept 30.

The incident has caused an outcry, increasing scrutiny of capital punishment in the United States and the methods used to carry it out. It also led to the resignation of Frank Strada, Tennessee’s prison chief.

“She’s still in the hospital on a ventilator, critically ill,” Stephen Ferrell, Pike’s attorney, told CNN. “We don’t really know the prognosis yet, and may not know for several days.

“We don’t know what her physical state will be, but it is clear that she has endured a torturous attempt at executing her.”

Mr Ferrell, who has been unable to see his client, is urging Bill Lee, the state governor, to show leniency and commute her sentence to life in prison.

He said she remained under armed guard in hospital as doctors worked to clear the substantial dose of pentobarbital, a barbiturate that suppresses the central nervous system, from her body. Medics have warned that she could suffer severe brain damage.

Pike has spent the past 30 years in prison, much of it in solitary confinement, after becoming one of the youngest women in the United States to be sentenced to death.

At 18, she and Tadaryl Shipp, her then boyfriend, tortured and killed Colleen Slemmer, 19, who was known to them from a state job-training programme in Knoxville. Her lawyers at the time sought clemency, citing her age, childhood sexual abuse and mental health problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder.

After the attempted execution on Wednesday, Pike was heard snoring for about an hour, according to witnesses, who claimed she was alive when they were ushered out of the execution chamber viewing area.

In his resignation statement, Mr Strada said “the department carried out its responsibilities in accordance with the established protocol”.

Mr Lee, who previously denied Pike clemency, has halted further executions for the rest of the year pending an independent review.

It was the second failed execution in Tennessee this year. In May, Tony Carruthers was granted a one-year reprieve after his execution was halted when staff spent more than an hour trying unsuccessfully to establish an intravenous line.

He remains on death row in Nashville after being sentenced to death for the 1994 kidnapping and murders of three people in Memphis.

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