En esta noticia
Tennessee has not said whether it will try again to execute Christa Pike, who survived a lethal injection Sept. 30, as her lawyers ask Republican Gov. Bill Lee to spare her life.
At a court hearing in Nashville on Wednesday, a lawyer for the state said any new execution date is up to the Tennessee Supreme Court. Lee, who can commute death sentences, has not indicated what he will do.
Pike, 50, received two doses of pentobarbital and is believed to be the first person to survive after execution drugs were administered. She regained consciousness Tuesday. She was sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of classmate Colleen Slemmer.
Lee ordered a third-party review of the failed execution and postponed the only other execution Tennessee had scheduled this year.
Can Tennessee legally try to execute Christa Pike again?
A second lethal injection could be challenged under the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution, which bans cruel and unusual punishment. Pike’s was the state’s second failed execution this year, after officials halted Tony Carruthers’ in May.
Her lawyers could also argue the method is unconstitutional in her specific case. Before Sept. 30, they warned that her small veins and a blood-clotting condition would complicate the procedure.
The electric chair is an option only if Pike chooses it. Because her crime predates a change in Tennessee law, she could waive lethal injection in writing.
Her mental state could also block a new attempt. Executing someone who can’t understand why it is happening is considered cruel and unusual, and it is not yet known whether the failed execution left her with brain damage.
What are Christa Pike’s lawyers asking for?
Her attorneys want Lee to commute her sentence to life in prison without parole, arguing she has already suffered enough.
They are also seeking answers on what went wrong, which state officials have not explained. On Wednesday, a Nashville judge ordered the state to preserve all evidence from the execution attempt.
Attorney Randy Spivey said Pike still can’t move her arms or swallow and has some cognitive confusion. She also has pneumonia and a blood clot in her arm, and her prognosis is unclear.