US3 min(s) read
'Leaked photo' of Christa Pike 'shows purple arm' after botched execution
Just days after two lethal injections failed to kill Christa Pike, a horrifying picture of the injuries she suffered during the botched attempts at her execution has seemingly been leaked.
The alleged image appears to support her lawyers' claims that the death row inmate, who was set to be the first woman killed by the state of Tennessee in over 200 years, arrived at the hospital with “swollen, burned, and blistered” arms.
The disturbing image has not been published in many places
While the majority of news outlets across the world have chosen not to publish the picture for legal reasons, Radar.com claims it is legitimate and that it came from a source inside the Tennessee Department of Correction.
Pike, 50, remains in critical condition in the hospital after surviving a double dose of the lethal injection in Tennessee on Wednesday, September 30.
Over the weekend, her attorney revealed that she is currently under guard and “may not fully recover” after the Tennessee Department of Correction confirmed she was “transported to an off-site medical facility”.
According to reports, even after two syringes of potent poison pentobarbital were administered, she had “not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat,” and was “audibly snoring”.
Witnesses of the failed execution attempts reported watching medical staff struggle to administer the injection and even claimed that Pike tried to help guide them towards a vein to insert the IV.
Medical staff struggled to insert the IV, leaving her injured
Allegedly, one needle was bent when it was pulled from her arm after the first failed attempt. The murderer, who had been on death row for 30 years, was reportedly left crying and whispering throughout the process.
She even cried out: “My arm feels like it’s about to burst open.
“Does this happen like that?”
Anesthesiologist Dr Joel Zivot says the evidence suggests that the pentobarbital did not enter her bloodstream as intended and instead spread across the tissue under her skin.
Despite the attempts to end her life, authorities have now been tasked with keeping her alive due to a flaw in the death penalty protocol.
The strict set of guidelines advises the state to administer a second injection if the first dose doesn’t result in death. However, the protocol doesn’t tell the state what to do if a second dose doesn’t work.
A decision had to be made on what to do with the critically ill Pike, and within seconds the medical professionals in the room switched from attempting to kill her to trying to save her life.
Pike was just 18 when she was sentenced to spend the rest of her life on death row after she tortured and killed fellow student Colleen Slemmer, 19, with the help of her boyfriend in 1995.
The death row inmate’s legal team fought until the last moment to have her sentence reduced to life imprisonment, citing her childhood trauma involving sexual and physical abuse, neglect, and domestic violence, which was never addressed by prosecutors during her initial trial three decades ago.