A gruesome picture of Christa Pike’s arm has been leaked to a US publication after two lethal injections failed to kill her.
Staff writers
A gruesome picture of Christa Pike’s arm has been leaked to a US publication after two lethal injections failed to kill her.
The image shows her arm to purple from the elbow down.
It is thought that a vein might have burst in Pike’s arm causing the pentobarbital to spread into her muscle.
The picture of Pike’s damaged arm was leaked to Radar.com from an insider who claimed it came from a correctional officer at the Tennessee Department of Correction.
The publication has chosen not to publish the image.
Pike, 50, remains in hospital and critically ill after surviving a double dose of lethal injection in Tennessee on Wednesday.
Her attorney said over the weekend that she is currently under guard after she arrived at hospital with a “swollen, burned and blistered” arm after seen needles were inserted during the botched execution.
He added that Pike may never recover, with the killer now relying on a ventilator.
Several witnesses said they could hear Pike asking if the burning sensation in her arm was normal.
They also heard her moaning and snoring during the agonising procedure before they were ushered out of the execution chamber when Pike had failed to die after two hours.
Pike even tried to guide the IV team towards a vein as they repeatedly attempted to gain access.
One needle was reportedly bent at a 90-degree angle when it was yanked from her arm after a failed attempt.
Her lawyers said Pike was eventually given two sets of syringes containing the lethal drug.
It left her crying and whimpering throughout the grim procedure, according to reports.
Her lawyers raised concerns about lethal injection months before her day of execution, saying she had small veins and a blood condition that could make it more difficult to insert an IV.
They now allege that “at no point did any member of the execution team realise that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown and that the pentobarbital was, in whole or in part, entering Ms Pike’s body”.
Anaesthesiologist Dr Joel Zivot says the evidence suggests that the pentobarbital did not enter her blood stream as intended and instead spread across the tissue under her skin.
Dr Zivot – who is advising Pike’s defense team – said that this indicated a ruptured vein.
Her condition, thrombocytosis, may also have caused blood clots to form potentially blocking the lethal pentobarbital, he added.
Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the brutal murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.
She carried out the deadly attack with her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, who Pike said Colleen was trying to steal from her.
Carved with satanic pentagrams and badly beaten, Colleen’s corpse was first mistaken for an animal.
Pike has never denied killing Colleen but said she was “a mentally ill 18-year-old kid”.
She has been on death row at Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville since she was convicted in 1996.
Pike asked to be executed by firing squad, which the state does not do, or by hanging, for which officials said they did not have the equipment.
She also asked for a physician not employed by the state department of corrections to be present, in addition to an ICU ambulance if needed for “resuscitative measures.”
- With The Sun
