Tennessee Judge Keeps Jurisdiction in Christa Pike Evidence Fight After 2-Dose Execution Failure
Updated
Updated · CNN · Oct 7
Tennessee Judge Keeps Jurisdiction in Christa Pike Evidence Fight After 2-Dose Execution Failure
3 articles · Updated · CNN · Oct 7
Summary
Davidson County Chancery Court ruled it retains jurisdiction over Christa Pike’s case, allowing a hearing to proceed on her lawyers’ bid to preserve evidence from last week’s failed execution.
Pike’s attorneys say she survived two ostensibly lethal pentobarbital doses after executioners spent about an hour trying to place IV lines with at least seven needles, causing the drug to flow into tissue rather than her bloodstream.
The state urged the court to deny the emergency motion, arguing the Department of Correction is already required to preserve the targeted evidence under a longstanding federal court order.
Pike is conscious and speaking a week later, her lawyers said, after arriving at a hospital with swollen, burned and blistered arms and receiving lifesaving care.
The case has intensified scrutiny of Tennessee’s death penalty system, already under review after a second failed execution this year and the announced resignation of corrections commissioner Frank Strada.