Christa Pike unconscious and on ventilator in hospital after botched execution, attorneys say

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Christa Pike, the only woman on Tennessee's death row, remains "critically ill," unconscious and on a ventilator in a hospital, two days after a botched execution attempt, her attorneys said Friday.

"She is being treated for the serious effects of the pentobarbital administered during the execution attempt, including significant injuries to both arms," her attorneys, Stephen Ferrell and Luke Ihnen from Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee, said in a statement on Friday.

The attorneys filed an emergency motion Friday in Davidson County Chancery Court seeking an order requiring the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve all relevant evidence related to the execution attempt.

According to the motion, Pike "could be heard crying, whimpering, and breathing loudly" while being administered two lethal doses of pentobarbital, at one point stating that her arm "feels like it's about to burst open." At least seven needles were used to gain IV access, with one "bent in a 90-degree angle when it was removed," it stated.

The motion described pentobarbital, a sedating medication, as being "caustic and highly alkaline" and that it "burns upon contact." Both of Pike's arms were "swollen, burned, and blistered" when she arrived at a Nashville-area hospital, the motion stated.

"Hospital staff are working to save Ms. Pike's life and to clear the pentobarbital from her system," the motion stated.

Pike had raised concerns about a lethal injection in the months prior to her scheduled execution, arguing that her "thrombocytosis, post traumatic stress disorder and small veins 'make it sure or very likely that there is a substantial risk that she will experience unnecessary and superadded pain and suffering, terror, and disgrace,'" the motion stated.

"The filing details the serious complications that occurred during the execution attempt, many of which Christa and her attorneys had warned the State and the courts about months earlier," her attorneys said. "Preserving this evidence is essential to understanding what happened, ensuring accountability and protecting Christa’s legal rights."

The legal team for Pike -- the first woman the state planned to execute in over 200 years -- has called on Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to commute her death sentence.

"The state of Tennessee has shown us again that they are not capable of carrying out an execution consistent with basic human dignity," Randy Spivey, an attorney with the Tennessee Office of the Post-Conviction Defender, told reporters on Thursday. "Last night was not just inefficient. It was cruel, and it was torturous."

"Ms. Pike was not just cooperative, but was trying to help instruct the people placing the IV lines of where she could they could find them," Spivey said. "She over and over again said, 'Please try up on my shoulder higher. Please try here. Please try here.'"