Nashville judge orders Tennessee prison officials to preserve all evidence from Christa Pike's failed execution

What happened

The Davidson County Chancery Court in Nashville on Wednesday, Oct. 7, ordered Tennessee prison officials to preserve all evidence connected to the failed Sept. 30 lethal injection of Christa Pike, NPR reported. The order covers log books, medical waste and all messages sent or received by officials associated with the execution attempt.

"Anything in the actual room needs to be preserved and maintained," Judge I'Ashea Myles said, according to NPR.

Faster access for Pike's lawyers

The judge also granted a request from Pike's attorneys for "liberal access" to their client. Under the order, prison officials will have two hours to respond to lawyers' requests for in-person visits with Pike.

Luke P. Ihnen, an assistant federal defender in Knoxville, told reporters outside the courtroom that the ruling was "just a first step of many to preserve and enforce Christa's constitutional rights," NPR reported.

What happened during the Sept. 30 attempt

According to NPR, Pike was strapped to a gurney and given two doses of pentobarbital, a barbiturate widely used in U.S. executions. Several minutes after the first dose, she said her arm was burning and asked whether it was supposed to feel that way. She then said, "Please try up on my shoulder higher."

Randy Spivey, a post-conviction attorney for Pike who witnessed the attempt, told NPR that after the second dose she fell unconscious but kept breathing and making choking sounds. Pike was left hospitalized in critical condition. Her attorneys said that after days of unconsciousness she was awake, speaking and still receiving critical medical care, as covered in our earlier brief on Pike regaining consciousness.

Lawyers say the problem was foreseeable

Spivey said "all of this was foreseen" because Pike has a medical condition that would make it difficult to insert an IV to deliver the drugs. He called his client "a survivor" and said, "She deserves answers about what was done to her and the people of Tennessee deserve those answers, too."

How Tennessee has responded

After the failed execution, Tennessee's top prison official, Frank Strada, resigned, NPR reported. Gov. Bill Lee halted executions through the end of the year and ordered an independent investigation into the state's capital punishment system.

Questions about a second attempt

NPR reported it was not immediately clear whether those steps would affect a second attempt to execute Pike. At the hearing, Tennessee Assistant Attorney General John Ayers said the decision on when or if to schedule a new execution date was up to the state's supreme court. Ihnen said it would be "unconscionable that the state would try to execute her again."

Background on the case

Pike was on death row for a 1995 murder committed when she was 18. According to NPR, she and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, tortured and killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow classmate in the Knoxville Job Corps. Shipp, who was a minor at the time, received life in prison without parole.

In a clemency petition filed last month, Pike's attorneys asked that her sentence be commuted to life without the possibility of parole, citing her history of childhood trauma. They argued that coverage of her trial during the "Satanic Panic" of the 1990s ignored the context of her youth, trauma and mental illness.

Reaction from death penalty critics

"This failed attempt is the worst we've ever seen and unlike any other botched execution in the modern era," Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said in a statement. The nonpartisan nonprofit said Pike was the first person in the history of capital punishment to survive after being injected with lethal drugs. More national coverage is in our Nation section.

What to watch next

• Whether the Tennessee Supreme Court schedules a new execution date for Pike, a decision the state says is up to that court.
• The independent investigation into Tennessee's capital punishment system ordered by Gov. Bill Lee, with executions halted through the end of the year.
• Further legal action from Pike's attorneys, who called the evidence order a first step of many.