Christa Pike lawyer tells court she is speaking ‘limitedly’
One of Christa Pike’s lawyers, Luke Ihnen, said Pike was “speaking, limitedly” as he addressed Judge I’Ashea Myles about procedural issues in the case, including whether the Davidson county court has jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, John W Ayers, an assistant attorney general, called Pike’s survival from two lethal injections an “unusual, procedural position”.
Updated at 12.52 EDT
Key events
Christa Pike’s lawyer tells the court that the state of Tennessee had made no promises that it will not seek a future execution.
“The state has made no promises that Ms Pike will not be subject to a future execution, and the evidence that we are seeking to preserve now is relevant for any future challenge that she makes, because as we pled in January, the same thing is likely to happen,” Luke Ihnen said.
He argues that is a reason why records must be preserved as it is likely Pike will face a future execution attempt.
Ihnen accused officials of “secreting away” evidence.
Updated at 12.57 EDT
Judge I’Ashea Myles said the state has agreed that the Davidson county court has the authority to hear the case. She will now officially reopen it.
Christa Pike’s lawyer, Luke Ihnen, is now going through the complaints her team has filed, pointing out issues in the botched execution protocol and the qualifications of prison staff.
“The new protocol allows for the placement of a ‘central line’. However, upon information and belief, the defendants do not have the medical personnel or equipment and cannot secure the same,” he said.
He also said: “Ms Pike has a history of difficulty with blood draws and needle insertion. Prison medical staff often use a butterfly needle on her arm to draw blood, because her veins are so difficult to access. The plaintiff’s physical characteristics will make it significantly more difficult to achieve and or maintain.”
Updated at 12.57 EDT
Christa Pike lawyer tells court she is speaking ‘limitedly’
One of Christa Pike’s lawyers, Luke Ihnen, said Pike was “speaking, limitedly” as he addressed Judge I’Ashea Myles about procedural issues in the case, including whether the Davidson county court has jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, John W Ayers, an assistant attorney general, called Pike’s survival from two lethal injections an “unusual, procedural position”.
Updated at 12.52 EDT
Christa Pike lawyers in court after she regains consciousness
The court hearing of Christa Pike is now under way.
Pike’s lawyers are addressing the court at the moment.
There will be a press conference after the hearing. The press conference had originally been expected for 12pm ET.
Updated at 12.17 EDT
The press conference hosted by Christa Pike’s lawyers will begin momentarily.
Stay tuned as we bring you the latest updates.
Update: the press conference will be held after the court appearance has finished.
Updated at 12.22 EDT
Ed Pilkington
In the modern era of the US death penalty, Tennessee has never executed a person who was 18 at the time of their offence – the youngest was 23. Over the past 50 years, the state sent seven men who were 18 when they committed murder to death row, but in each case the sentence was vacated.
Tadryl Shipp, Christa Pike’s accomplice, held a fascination with satanic imagery. It was he who carved a pentagram in the victim’s chest, sending the local media into a frenzy. Yet because he was 17 at the time, he was barred from execution under Tennessee law; today he is serving a life sentence and had his first, unsuccessful, parole hearing in October 2025.
Had Pike been 10 months younger, she too would have been legally protected from the execution chamber. As time has passed, experts in children’s brains development have come to recognize that 18 is but an arbitrary line in the sand; adolescents – whatever their specific age – are susceptible to impulsive behavior.
And then there’s gender. Some argue that the gender of the 45 women who are now held on death rows across the US is irrelevant to their eligibility for the ultimate punishment. But in Pike’s case, it seems all too pertinent, given the agonizing litany of sexual and physical abuse she endured throughout her childhood.
She was subjected to a bewildering array of abuse, including multiple rapes by three separate men and beatings by numerous relatives.
Age. Gender. Abuse. The ingredients are all there, Pike’s legal team argues in the clemency petition for her crime, terrible though it was, to be recast in a different light.
Updated at 11.59 EDT
Tennessee’s top prison official is resigning following Christa Pike’s botched execution attempt.
Over the weekend, governor Bill Lee announced that Frank Strada, the department of correction commissioner, will leave his position in late October amid an independent investigation into Pike’s failed execution attempt.
Despite calling the case “deeply disturbing,” Lee told reporters last week: “So far as we know, the department of correction followed exactly the protocol that was outlined.” Meanwhile, Strada said that his resignation would “be in the best interests” of the state as the investigation goes underway.
Death penalty lawyers said that Strada oversaw five “botched” executions, with common threads including prolonged suffering among prisoners and questionable injection procedures.
On September 30, Christa Pike, who was set to be the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years, survived two doses of pentobarbital, a sedatative.
Witnesses to the attempt to execute Pike described how they heard she was choking and struggling for an hour after receiving the first injection. She was then hospitalized after a second dose failed to kill her. In the hospital, she was put on a ventilator and had been in critical condition.
Speaking to the BBC, Joel Zivot, an anaesthesiologist advising Pike’s team, said: “She has some memories of being in the hospital but no memory, I believe, of the execution attempt.”
Zivot added that Pike was able to remember her name but incorrectly guessed the current month as September.
ShareChrista Pike’s lawyers hold press conference after saying she is ‘conscious’ following execution attempt
Christa Pike’s lawyers are holding a press conference today after revealing last night that their client was “conscious and speaking” following last week’s botched execution attempt in Tennessee.
The 50-year old death row inmate is still receiving critical care in a hospital while “handcuffed and shackled to the bed”, her lawyers said on Tuesday, adding: “Her recovery is medically unprecedented. Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery.”
Speaking to the BBC, an anaesthesiologist advising Pike’s team said that she is able to communicate in a “basic way” but did not seem to remember last Wednesday’s execution attempt.
Her legal team will ask a court on at a hearing on Wednesday to require the Tennessee department of correction to preserve all “relevant physical, written and electronic evidence” related to the failed execution, court documents said.
The press conference is scheduled for noon ET.
Stay tuned as we bring you the latest live updates from the press conference.
Updated at 12.00 EDT