A Tennessee judge has ordered officials to preserve evidence connected to the failed execution of Christa Pike.
Pike, the only woman on Tennessee’s death row, survived two doses of the lethal drug pentobarbital during the Sept. 30 execution attempt in Nashville. Her attorneys say she remains hospitalized.
She was sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. The lethal injection attempt followed a series of legal filings made in the final hours before the scheduled execution.
Pike’s lawyers asked the Davidson County Chancery Court last week to compel the Tennessee Department of Correction to safeguard “any and all evidence related” to the execution attempt. They argue that the incident amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.
“In light of the manifest violation of Ms. Pike’s constitutional rights, the actionable nature of that violation, and the reasonable foreseeability of litigation, the Defendants have an affirmative duty to preserve all relevant physical, written, and electronic evidence,” the filing stated.
After hearing arguments from Pike’s attorney and the state Wednesday, Chancellor I’Ashea Myles granted the request.
“This case is unique, to say the least,” Myles said. “In light of the evolving situation, the court will pen and grant its own order, granting the motion to preserve relevant evidence.”
The order covers execution photographs, video, audio and surveillance footage, along with any drugs, syringes, IV lines and tubing held by the state. It also requires the preservation of handwritten notes, logs, checklists, timelines, incident reports and witness statements.
Myles further directed officials to retain all communications about the execution,
“anything concerning the deviation” from protocol and “anything concerning any complications, delays, equipment issues.”
“Anything in regards to the ability to access veins — just the administration of this particular execution. It needs to all be maintained,” she said.
The hearing took place one day after Pike’s attorneys said she had regained consciousness. The failed execution left her critically wounded and briefly dependent on a ventilator. Luke Ihnen of Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee told the court Wednesday that Pike is now “speaking limitedly.”
“Before yesterday, we didn’t know if Miss Pike was ever going to regain consciousness or speak,” Ihnen said.
Arguing for a broad preservation order, Ihnen said Pike’s legal team still does not know what evidence the state possesses because officials have not disclosed it fully.
“Everything they have in their possession should be preserved,” he told the judge.
Assistant Tennessee Attorney General Will Ayers said the state is cooperating with Pike’s attorneys to help them obtain evidence they believe they are entitled to receive. He added that the corrections department had already been told to preserve materials covered by a federal lawsuit involving another Tennessee death row prisoner.
Ayers said the department collected physical materials from the execution chamber on the night of Sept. 30 and placed them in a preservation room. The items include logbooks, observation records, medical waste and related products, as well as EKG readouts.
Some sections of the IV tubing may have remained attached to Pike when she was taken to the hospital, Ayers told the court.
Myles said her preservation order would stand independently of the federal case cited by state officials.
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If any evidence has already been discarded, deleted, destroyed or otherwise lost, Myles directed the Tennessee Department of Correction to take affirmative steps to recover it when possible. She also ordered the agency to establish procedures preventing the destruction or disposal of information while the litigation continues.
According to Pike’s motion, she was heard crying, whimpering and breathing heavily as the two doses of pentobarbital were administered. At one point, she reportedly said her arm felt as though it was “about to burst open.” The filing said officials used at least seven needles to establish IV access, including one that was bent at a 90-degree angle when removed.
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.
Pike had raised concerns about a lethal injection in a complaint filed 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.
Ihnen said during Wednesday’s hearing that “based on what we know about Miss Pike’s current condition, these allegations that were made in the complaint certainly appear to be at least related to the botched execution.”
Asked directly by Chancellor Myles at one point if he can answer whether Pike’s execution will be rescheduled, Ayers said he is not in a position to answer that.
In an update Tuesday, Pike’s attorneys said she was conscious and speaking, alling her recovery “medically unprecedented.”
“Her
In the wake of the botched execution, TDOC said that it "followed every step of the State's lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General's Office."
"The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out [that] evening," the statement continued.
Pike's attorneys said Tuesday they continue to ask Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to commute her sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
She is the first person reported to have survived lethal injection after being given medications, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, whose executive director referred to the failed attempt as "the worst we've ever seen and unlike any other botched execution in the modern era."
In the wake of the botched execution, Gov. Lee ordered a temporary halt to scheduled executions in the state and TDOC Commissioner Frank Strada resigned.
The governor's office said in a statement that it has also appointed former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton to conduct an independent review of TDOC's execution attempt that "will seek to determine whether the protocol was followed and consider whether additional recommendations are necessary to ensure the State's protocol continues to be lawful and effective."
"The State previously retained Stanton in 2022 to conduct an independent review of Tennessee's lethal injection protocol. His work prompted the State and Attorney General's Office to substantially rewrite the protocol before executions resumed," the statement further said.
The botched execution comes after Tennessee's planned execution of Tony Carruthers in May had to be halted after authorities were unable to find a suitable vein to place an IV to administer the injection after trying for over an hour, his attorneys said at the time. Gov. Lee granted Carruthers a one-year reprieve.