Christa Pike’s living hell revealed, as attorney says death row killer who survived botched execution cannot swallow or move her ‘tremendously swollen’ arms
Christa Pike‘s lawyer revealed her horrific condition after she survived a botched lethal injection that left her with ‘tremendously swollen’ arms.
Pike, 50, is awake and ‘speaking limitedly’ one week after executioners attempted to give her two doses of lethal injections.
She was sentenced to death for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer.
After a court hearing to preserve the evidence from her failed execution on Wednesday, her lawyers shared details about her condition as she remains hospitalized.
‘On Monday night, it was our understanding that Christa was brain dead, and life support would be removed the next day, but on Tuesday, to the shock of everyone, including me, her team, and the medical team, Christa woke up and began talking,’ her lawyer, Randy Spivey, said.
‘I do not have an explanation for what happened between Monday night and Tuesday morning, but what we do know is that Christa has a long road to recovery.
‘She has a blood clot in one of her arms. She has pneumonia. She is not able to swallow yet, so she has not eaten.’
Spivey continued: ‘She cannot move either of her arms. Both of her arms and hands are tremendously swollen, and we do not know what, if any, function she will regain. She is shackled at her feet and on her right arm.’
During the court hearing on Wednesday, her lawyer, Luke Ihnen, asked the judge to remove the shackles on her hospital bed and give her access to a phone.
‘Up until yesterday, our client was unconscious, unable to communicate with counsel, unable to communicate with medical providers,’ Ihnen said.
Judge I’Ashea Myles did not rule on Pike’s requests, but asked her lawyers and the state to provide more information about how she could use a tablet at the hospital and to prove that medical staff want the shackles removed.
The lawyers were in court for an emergency hearing on Pike’s request to preserve all evidence from her failed execution on September 30.
‘TDOC (the Tennessee Department of Correction) continues to put up roadblocks, not only for the providers at the hospital, but for counsel, and so we would ask for an order granting continuous, liberal access to Ms Pike,’ Ihnen said.
‘Based on our understanding, medical staff have asked that the shackles be removed and have been denied that request by TDOC. We would also amend our request and ask for that relief.’
‘The state has made no promises that Ms Pike will not be subject to future execution,’ Ihnen said.
‘The evidence that we are seeking to preserve now is relevant to any future challenge that she makes. We don’t know what they have, because they won’t tell us.
‘We are frustrated that the information that the state has is repeatedly and deliberately secreted away.’
Assistant Attorney General John Ayers claimed there is no pending execution order for Pike and denied the allegation that TDOC is preventing her lawyers from meeting with her.
‘TDOC does not intend to obstruct access to counsel. That’s why there’s been a process set up to request visitation to facilitate that,’ he said.
‘Now, these requests that were just layered on today go above and beyond what the conditions were before,’ Ayers said, adding that she never had unfettered access to a phone.
He continued: ‘Again, access to counsel is being facilitated. TDOC is not taking the position that counsel should be excluded.’
Ultimately, Myles ruled that Pike’s lawyers must email the prison wardens at least two hours before they want to visit her in the hospital.
‘[Just because Pike] is currently in a hospital does not mean that she should have any less access to her attorney than she would when she was in the women’s prison,’ the judge said.
‘This court will not run afoul of whatever the facility has already in place. There is a two-hour response on whether or not visitation will be allowed.’
She declined to decide whether to get her a tablet, and asked the lawyers to send her more information about how Pike could use the device in a private hospital.
The judge also asked the defense to file an affidavit from the hospital requesting that the shackles be removed before making her ruling.
Ayers also claimed that the Department of Corrections has already preserved the evidence from Pike’s attempted execution.
He said log books, observation logs, medical waste and products, and electrocardiogram readouts have been saved.
‘It’s my understanding that the IV lines were cut, and so there may be portions of those IV lines that could have been still attached to Ms Pike when she was transported to the hospital,’ Ayers said.
‘It would be premature and prejudicial, quite frankly, to enter an order requiring preservation of that kind of evidence before counsel had a chance to confer on it and get a picture of where that evidence might be.’
Myles granted Pike’s request for the preservation order, noting: ‘This case is unique to say the least.’
‘Take special care not to lose, misplace, or accidentally delete any information pertinent to this investigation,’ she said.
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