US murderer Christa Pike unconscious and on ventilator after failed execution, lawyers say

Image source, Tennessee Department of CorrectionsByIone Wells, Reporting fromNorth America correspondent in Nashville and Sareen Habeshian Updated 3 hours agoWarning: This article contains details that readers may find distressing.

1. US death row inmate survives execution attempt after two lethal injectionsPublished1 day ago.
2. I've seen nearly 500 executions - but never one like Christa Pike's.

O que aconteceu na execução falha de Christa Pike - e o que vem a seguir? Publicado há 41 minutos.

O prisioneiro da pena de morte do Tennessee, Christa Pike, estava inconsciente, intubado e em ventilador na noite de quinta-feira, depois que as autoridades falharam em executá‑la por injeção letal, dizem os advogados em documentos judiciais.

Pike, 50, was injected with two lethal doses of pentobarbital on Wednesday but remained alive. She was then sent to hospital in an ambulance.

Pike remained critically ill and was being treated at a Nashville-area hospital.

Advogados de Pike, que foi sentenciada à morte em 1996 pelo assassinato de Colleen Slemmer, estão buscando ter sua sentença comutada após a tentativa de execução fracassada.

Figure caption, How widely used is the death penalty in the US.

Pike's lawyers filed an emergency motion on Friday to preserve "any and all evidence" related to her botched execution.

O expediente indica que a equipe do hospital está trabalhando para salvar a vida dela e eliminar o medicamento usado, pentobarbital, do seu organismo.

During the execution attempt, prison officials tried to start intravenous (IV) lines by using at least seven needles on Pike, according to her lawyers.

At one point, Pike herself offered guidance of where they could try.

One needle was bent in a 90-degree angle when it was removed," the filing states.

Enquanto recebia as duas doses, “ela podia ser ouvida chorando, gemendo e respirando alto durante todo o procedimento”, disseram seus advogados.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee ordered an independent review into Pike's botched execution and he halted all executions in the state for the year.

O departamento de correção do estado defendeu o método utilizado, dizendo "o protocolo não permite procedimentos adicionais além do que foi realizado.

Authorities are yet to say whether they will try again to execute Pike. They have not not offered any explanations about what went wrong.

Figure caption, Watch: Witnesses recount Christa Pike's failed execution attempt.

Pike's attorneys previously warned that her conditions, including thrombocytosis (a blood-clotting condition) and small veins meant there was a risk she would experience "unnecessary" pain and suffering during a lethal injection.

Nos últimos documentos, os advogados dela alegam que "em nenhum momento qualquer membro da equipe de execução percebeu que as linhas IV não estavam corretamente colocadas ou que as veias haviam se rompido e que o pentobarbital estava, total ou parcialmente, entrando no corpo da Sra.

They are requesting that all relevant physical, written and electronic evidence is preserved.

Dr Joel Zivot, an anaesthesiologist advising Pike's defence team, said two doses of pentobarbital was enough that "she would have surely died" had it entered her bloodstream in normal circulation.

The only possible explanation for her survival, Zivot said, "is that the pentobarbital blood level was never high enough to cause death" and that blisters on her arm after the botched execution indicated a ruptured vein.

Então, em vez de entrar na corrente sanguínea de Pike, ele disse, o pentobarbital provavelmente se espalhou pelos tecidos sob a pele dela.

Pike's medical condition of thrombocytosis may have also played a role, forming blood clots at the injection site that would potentially block pentobarbital from entering her veins.

Image source, Family handoutImage caption, Colleen Slemmer was tortured and brutally killed in the 1995 murder.

A execução tentativa avançou após múltiplos desafios legais de última hora fracassados pelos advogados de Pike.

The US Supreme Court thwarted two separate efforts to stop the lethal injection.

Tennessee's governor also denied a clemency request from Pike, the only woman on the state's death row.

Pike tinha 18 anos quando ela e seu então namorado, Tadaryl Shipp, bateram, torturaram e mataram Slemmer, de 19 anos, em 1995.

She was sentenced to death the following year after a media frenzy around the killing in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Before the killing, Pike had accused Slemmer of insulting her and trying to steal her then-boyfriend.

O namorado e co-réu de Pike, Shipp, tinha 17 anos na época, então foi poupado da pena de morte sob a lei estadual. Ele recebeu uma sentença de prisão perpétua com possibilidade de liberdade condicional e permanece na prisão.