Pike case: lawyers seek more time before the October 23 hearing
Just over two weeks after the failed execution, Christa Pike's lawyers are asking for more time to prepare. A filing describes her days in intensive care in detail for the first time.
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Christa Pike's lawyers have asked the Tennessee court for more time to prepare for the hearing on October 23, broadcaster WZTV/Fox 17 reported on Friday evening (local time). The hearing is meant to address the next steps after the failed execution attempt of September 30. The report does not say how much additional time the defence wants, and the court had not yet ruled.
In the filing, the lawyers describe Pike's condition after the procedure: she received two doses of the drug pentobarbital, survived and lay unconscious on a ventilator for several days. After the failed execution, her arms were "swollen, burned and blistered." She woke up and began speaking on October 6, and on October 10 she was discharged and returned to the Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, where she has been held for more than 30 years, according to her lawyers.
Governor Bill Lee has called off the last remaining execution scheduled for this year pending a review; former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton, retained by the Tennessee Attorney General's Office, is independently reviewing the Department of Correction's actions. Whether Tennessee will seek a new execution date remains open. A jury convicted Pike in 1996 of the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, who was killed in Knoxville in 1995; Slemmer was her classmate. Pike was 18 at the time.