In the US state of Tennessee, death row inmate Christa Pike is in critical condition and is receiving life-saving medical care at a Nashville hospital after two attempts to carry out her death sentence by lethal injection. According to her lawyers, the woman remained alive the day after the procedure at the Riverbend maximum-security prison. This was reported by the Jerusalem Post.
Pike's attorney, Randall Spivey, who witnessed the procedure, said he had no information about doctors' prognosis but confirmed that his client was alive. The defense again called for the death sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment, describing what Pike endured as chemical torture.
According to Spivey, prison staff appeared to have administered the drugs using two syringes. After the injections, Pike's right arm turned purple, and blisters appeared at the injection sites. After the second administration of the drug, she complained of pain in her arm and said she felt as if it were about to explode. The defense suggests that the drugs may have entered the tissues of her arm rather than directly into her bloodstream.
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The lawyers claim that Pike has a blood disorder and had previously feared complications during a lethal injection. They unsuccessfully asked the state to consider other methods of execution, including hanging or firing squad. Pike also requested that an all-female team be assembled to conduct the procedure; according to her lawyers, this request was granted.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, who on Monday denied Pike's clemency petition, ordered all planned executions in the state suspended until the end of the year and an independent review of the incident conducted. He called what happened a tragedy and said it deeply troubled him.
Pike, 50, was sentenced to death in the 1990s for a murder she committed at the age of 18. In January 1995, she, her 17-year-old boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, and another accomplice lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer into the woods, where she was tortured and killed. Pike and Shipp confessed to the murder and were found guilty of first-degree murder.
Source: ua.news
