Christa Pike unconscious, on ventilator after botched execution: Lawyers

The Tennessee woman’s legal team says doctors are working to clear doses of the drug pentobarbital from her system.

Emergency vehicles arrive at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution after the execution of Christa Pike was halted Wednesday in Nashville, Tennessee [George Walker IV/AP Photo]

Christa Pike has been placed on a ventilator and intubated after surviving a failed execution attempt, according to a court filing from her lawyers.

The Tennessee woman, they wrote on Friday, “remains critically ill” and is unconscious while receiving treatment at a hospital in Nashville.

list 1 of 3 Tennessee death-row prisoner Christa Pike survives lethal injections

list 2 of 3 Execution of US woman Christa Pike fails after botched lethal injection

list 3 of 3 Christa Pike execution fails: What next when a lethal injection is botched?

According to the filing, medical staff are working to save Pike’s life and clear her system of the two doses of the drug pentobarbital, which the US state uses to execute prisoners.

“Upon arrival, both of her arms were swollen, burned, and blistered,” Pike’s lawyers wrote about the drug’s effects on her body.

The filing, which was part of an emergency request by Pike’s lawyers to preserve state records related to her execution, marks the most detailed update on Pike’s condition after she was transported by ambulance to hospital from a Tennessee prison on Wednesday, following the botched attempt.

Pike’s lawyers argued that problems with the IV lines caused the pentobarbital to flow into her body instead of her bloodstream.

“Apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realise that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown and that the pentobarbital was, in whole or in part, entering Ms Pike’s body,” they wrote.

The lawyers allege prison staff prepared “a backup set of syringes” and “administered another lethal dose of pentobarbital”.

Pike, who was sentenced to death at 18 after she was found guilty of torturing and murdering another young woman in 1995, would have been the first woman in more than 200 years to be executed in Tennessee. She was also the only woman on the state’s death row.

Pike’s lawyers have called for her sentence to be commuted to life in prison after she endured what they called “chemical torture”.

Tennessee’s Governor Bill Lee has suspended all executions for the rest of the year while the state investigates what happened.

这位田纳西州女子的法律团队表示，医生们正在努力清除她体内的戊巴比妥类药物。

周三，在田纳西州纳什维尔，克里斯塔·派克的死刑被中止后，紧急车辆抵达了里弗本德最高安全级别监狱。[乔治·沃克四世/美联社照片]

据其律师提交的法庭文件显示，克丽斯塔·派克在一次失败的死刑执行中幸存下来后，已被接上呼吸机并插管。

他们在周五写道，这名田纳西州女子“病情仍然危重”，目前在纳什维尔的一家医院接受治疗，处于昏迷状态。

名单1/3：田纳西州死刑犯克丽斯塔·派克在注射死刑后幸存

列表 2/3：美国女子克丽斯塔·派克死刑执行失败，注射死刑失败。

克丽斯塔·派克死刑执行失败案例（共 3 例）：注射死刑失败后接下来会发生什么？

根据提交的文件，医务人员正在努力挽救派克的生命，并清除她体内的两剂戊巴比妥钠，这种药物是美国政府用来处决囚犯的。

“到达医院时，她的双臂肿胀、灼伤、起水泡，”派克的律师在描述毒品对她身体的影响时写道。

这份文件是派克的律师紧急请求保存与她死刑执行相关的州记录的一部分，也是自周三派克在田纳西州监狱被救护车送往医院接受死刑失败后的病情最新进展。

派克的律师辩称，静脉输液管出现问题，导致戊巴比妥流入她的体内而不是血液中。

他们写道：“显然，行刑队的任何成员都没有意识到静脉输液管的位置不正确，或者静脉已经破裂，戊巴比妥钠全部或部分进入了派克女士的体内。”

律师们声称监狱工作人员准备了“一套备用注射器”，并“注射了另一剂致命剂量的戊巴比妥”。

派克18岁时因在1995年被判犯有虐待和谋杀另一名年轻女子罪而被判处死刑，她本将成为200多年来田纳西州第一个被执行死刑的女性。她也是该州死囚牢房中唯一的女性。

派克的律师们呼吁将她的刑期减为终身监禁，因为他们称她遭受了“化学酷刑”。

田纳西州州长比尔·李已暂停今年剩余时间的所有死刑执行，以便该州调查事件真相。