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After Christa Pike survived Tennessee's failed attempt to execute her, the unsettled question of whether the state will try again could push Tennessee into uncharted legal territory, experts say.
Pike, 50, suffered burns and blisters to her arms and her prognosis remains uncertain after executioners tried to give her two lethal doses of pentobarbital, her legal team said Wednesday. She was sentenced to death for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer.
Although other states have moved forward with attempting to execute inmates a second time, in those cases, the first try had been halted before any drug actually began flowing.
Outgoing Republican Gov. Bill Lee has paused executions in Tennessee and ordered an outside review of the failed Sept. 30 attempt to put Pike to death. His office did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment on whether the state would try again to execute her.
Death penalty experts say it's hard to know what will happen if the state decides to move forward with a second attempt.
"Whether or not it would be lawful for the state of Tennessee to attempt to execute her again is a complex question that will take significant time, attention and analysis of her defense team, the prosecution team, the state government in Tennessee and multiple state and federal courts," said Stephen Johnson, a criminal defense attorney in Tennessee who is president-elect of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
Mental competency could be a first hurdle
Pike regained consciousness almost six days after the failed attempt to kill her. Her legal team had believed she was brain dead, but after she woke up, she was aware of what happened and was "angry and confused," her lawyers said Wednesday.
Her attorneys will surely explore the medical and psychiatric impact of receiving two doses of the lethal injection drug and being on a ventilator for several days to determine if she is "now legally competent to even be executed," Johnson said. That will likely include neuropsychological and forensic psychiatric evaluations and potentially other medical tests, and then there would "undoubtedly be significant litigation" over those issues, which can take years, he said.
Other cases could serve as a guide, but none are quite the same
There have been dozens of troubled executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, including several attempts that did not end in death.