Overview
- On Sept. 30 Tennessee administered two doses of pentobarbital to Christa Pike but she did not die and was taken to a Nashville-area hospital.
- Pike regained consciousness on Oct. 6 and is now walking short distances in her hospital room with assistance, though she shows memory, concentration and confusion issues.
- Doctors and lawyers report severe burns, swelling and tissue damage at Pike’s arm injection sites, plus complications that include pneumonia and a blood clot in an arm.
- A Davidson County judge ordered preservation of execution evidence after Pike’s lawyers filed emergency motions and asked Governor Bill Lee to commute her sentence to life without parole.
- Gov. Lee has suspended scheduled executions, retained former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton for an independent review, and Tennessee’s corrections commissioner has resigned while litigation and policy questions about retrying an execution continue.