Christa Pike, the Tennessee woman who survived a botched execution, remains critically ill and on a ventilator in hospital, according to her lawyer, who has called for her death sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment.
Pike, 50, survived two lethal injections of pentobarbital during her scheduled execution on Wednesday.
Her lawyer, Stephen Ferrell, said on Sunday that Pike remained unconscious in hospital while doctors worked to remove the drug from her system.
“She’s still in the hospital on a ventilator, critically ill,” Ferrell said in an interview with CNN. “We don’t really know the prognosis yet and may not know for several days.”
Ferrell said he had been unable to visit his client because she remained under guard at the hospital.
He urged Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to commute Pike’s death sentence to life imprisonment, citing the circumstances of the failed execution.
“I think, at the very least, the governor should commute Ms Pike’s death sentence to a life sentence,” Ferrell said.
He added that Pike had spent more than 30 years in prison, much of that time in solitary confinement, and argued that she had endured a traumatic execution attempt.
Media witnesses reportedly heard Pike snoring for about an hour after she was administered the lethal injections. They said she was still alive when they were escorted from the execution chamber viewing area at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
The botched execution led to the resignation of Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada on Saturday.
In his resignation statement, Strada maintained that the department had carried out its responsibilities in accordance with established protocol.
Governor Lee, who had previously denied Pike clemency, has halted further executions in Tennessee for the remainder of the year pending a third-party review.
Pike’s Murder Conviction
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer at a job training camp.
She was 18 at the time of the killing and was convicted alongside her boyfriend.
Pike’s lawyers had previously sought clemency, citing her age at the time of the crime, a history of childhood sexual abuse and mental health difficulties, including post-traumatic stress disorder.
The case has renewed attention on the death penalty and the procedures used to carry out executions in the United States.
For now, Pike remains hospitalised under guard as medical staff continue treating her following the failed execution.