Tennessee's failed attempt to execute death row inmate Christa Pike has left legal scholars, medical experts and state officials searching for answers after she reportedly survived two doses of pentobarbital and was transported to a hospital. The case has already prompted Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to halt the state's remaining scheduled executions for the year and order a third-party review. Experts interviewed by Newsweek say three possible explanations stand out: the drugs may never have properly entered Pike's bloodstream, the pentobarbital may have been ineffective, or Pike may have had an unusual physiological response to the drug.
State officials have not publicly disclosed Pike's condition. The Tennessean reported Thursday that medical staff were working to save Pike's life, although Vanderbilt University Medical Center declined to comment when contacted by Newsweek and referred questions to the Tennessee Department of Correction. The department later told Newsweek it had no additional information to share.
One of the leading theories focuses on the intravenous lines used to administer the drugs. Corinna Barrett Lain, author of Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection and the George E. Allen Chair in Law at the University of Richmond School of Law, said Pike's case appears unlike any previous modern lethal injection execution.
"We've never had someone who has survived their own execution when the drugs are going into them," Lain said. "We've had several people... that have survived an execution because they couldn't get access to the veins. But this is the first time where they had access and yet she lives." Lain said one possibility is that the IV lines failed during the process, causing the drugs to enter surrounding tissue instead of Pike's bloodstream.
According to witness accounts, Pike complained during the execution attempt that her arm felt as though it was "about to burst open." Lain said that description could be consistent with an IV infiltration, in which medication leaks into tissue after a catheter comes out of a vein. Joel Zivot, a professor at Emory University School of Medicine who was retained by Pike's legal team as a medical expert but spoke to Newsweek in a personal capacity, offered a similar theory. Zivot said one possible explanation is that the IV lines failed during the procedure, causing the pentobarbital to leak outside the veins rather than fully entering Pike's circulation.
He said that could explain why Pike appeared affected by the drug but survived the execution attempt. Zivot said a properly administered dose of pentobarbital should have been fatal. "One round properly done should kill her," he said.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
