Christa Pike on ventilator and unconscious after failed execution in Tennessee, lawyers say

Christa Pike was placed on a ventilator and remained unconscious in a hospital in the hours after her failed execution in Tennessee, her lawyers said in a court filing Friday.

Hospital staff, his attorneys say, were working to save Pike’s life and, on Thursday night, were trying to wash away two doses of the drug the state uses to execute prisoners.

READ MORE: Christa Gail Pike wasn’t the first botched execution in Tennessee this year. Here’s what you need to know

The resounding failure of Tennessee’s execution chamber Wednesday has both sides of the death penalty debate demanding answers. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee ordered an independent review.

The court filing offered the first detailed account of Pike’s condition after an ambulance took her from the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville Wednesday evening. Her lawyers had said the day before that she was in critical condition.

Christa Pike’s lawyers highlight problems with IV

Pike’s lawyers said they believe problems with the intravenous lines caused the pentobarbital to leak into his body instead of into his bloodstream.

“Apparently, at no time did any member of the execution team realize that the IVs were not properly placed or that the veins had burst and that pentobarbital was entering, in whole or in part, Ms. Pike’s body,” they wrote in the court filing.

WATCH: What we know about Tennessee’s botched execution of Christa Pike

Instead of “remedying this failure,” they prepared and administered a second dose of pentobarbital, his lawyers said.

State officials have offered no explanation for what went wrong.

Tennessee leaders want review of enforcement methods

Lee demanded a review of execution procedures and indefinitely postponed Pike’s execution and another that was scheduled for this year. Republican lawmakers in Tennessee said the state should examine whether to stop single-drug lethal injections and consider other options for carrying out death sentences.

The execution team worked for an hour to administer the deadly drugs, said Pike’s defense attorney, Randy Spivey, who counted at least seven needles in his left arm.

Neither the initial nor the booster dose of pentobarbital worked. Pike was still snoring when the execution chamber microphone was cut off more than an hour after the attempt began.

Pike’s lawyers have asked a state court to order the Tennessee Department of Corrections to preserve all evidence of the failed execution.

“Preserving this evidence is essential to understanding what happened, ensuring accountability and protecting Christa’s legal rights,” two of her lawyers said in a statement.

READ MORE: Many States Have Backup Implementation Plans, But Failures Still Happen

She was 18 when she and her boyfriend tortured and killed a classmate in a fit of jealous rage. She later became one of the youngest women to be sent to death row.

After the killing, Pike was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, his lawyers said.

“It took me many years to realize the gravity of what I had done. Even longer to come to terms with how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone’s child, their sister, their friend. It sickens me now to think that I had the capacity to commit such a crime,” Pike said in a previous request for clemency.

The mother of the 19-year-old woman killed by Pike has expressed frustration over the failed execution. “I didn’t get justice for my daughter,” May Martinez said Thursday.

Problems noted during executions four years ago

Four years ago, Tennessee’s governor ordered a new independent review of capital punishment after abruptly halting the execution of Oscar Smith in April 2022. Lee then suspended all executions after acknowledging that the state had failed to ensure its lethal injection drugs were properly tested.

Months later, a report found that the state had failed to comply with its own lethal injection process since it was revised in 2018, leading to executions without proper drug testing.

READ MORE: Tennessee Governor Stops Executions After Christa Gail Pike Survives Lethal Injection Attempt

At the time, the state used a three-drug execution protocol: midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride. The state then opted for the exclusive use of pentobarbital.

Pentobarbital has been used to carry out death sentences in several states and by the federal government.

The investigation, led by former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton, also found that the state’s unidentified executioner had no formal training in health care and learned his role primarily through field experience.

After the report was released, the Tennessee Department of Corrections fired its longtime top attorney and another employee.

Associated Press writer John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.