Christa Pike remains unconscious and on a ventilator in a Nashville hospital, five days after her failed execution in Tennessee.
On being asked if she ever regained consciousness after the execution attempt, Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell, Pike’s lawyer, said on CNN’s State of the Union, “Not that I am aware of.”
“Don’t miss. If you are going to electrocute them, so to speak, let’s make sure we’ve got full power going to Old Sparky. And if you were going to actually inject them with a dose of drugs such to paralyze their body, render them unconscious, and put them to death, make sure that you do it competently.
Pike, 50, was sentenced to death in 1996 in connection with the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer . Pike was 20 at the time. The Death Penalty Information Center states that the last execution of a woman in Tennessee was in 1820. This means Pike would have been the first woman to be executed in the state in more than 200 years.
“Much like if someone was going to be executed by a firing squad, if you’re going to shoot somebody, hit them,” Jones said.
“We’ve had a lot of concern that her body is still alive, but whether or not there is brain activity associated with the same. And that’s going to bring up the point with regards to competence. Because we have a Supreme Court decision that indicates that you cannot put someone to death if, in fact, they are not competent.”
“Well, I think the next step is to check and see what her mental condition is,” Jones said, per WVLT.
Even if Pike does recover, the state will have to start over as her death warrant has recovered.
“And if, in fact, she is incompetent, the case law is pretty clear and it says that you can’t put her to death,” Jones continued.
