Christa Pike was on a ventilator and unconscious in a hospital after her failed execution in Tennessee, her attorneys said in a court filing Friday.
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Christa Pike remained in a hospital on a ventilator and unconscious after her execution attempt in Tennessee, her attorneys said in a court filing Friday.
Her lawyers said hospital staff were working to save Pike’s life and to clear pentobarbital administered during the attempt from her system as of late Thursday.
The attorneys said Pike was given two doses of the drug in a failed attempt Wednesday to execute her.
In the court filing, Pike’s lawyers said they believed problems with the IV lines caused the pentobarbital to flow into her body instead of her bloodstream.
They wrote that, “at no point did any member of the execution team realize 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.”
Pike’s attorneys said that instead of “remedying this failure,” the team prepared and administered a backup set of pentobarbital syringes.
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