PIke may face execution after recovery, says US doctor

A medical adviser to Christa Pike's legal team has said the more her condition improves, the more likely she is to eventually face execution.

Christa Pike survived an execution attempt in Tennessee in the US last week.

The 50-year-old survived two doses of pentobarbital as officials attempted to put her to death by lethal injection.

She had been sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of classmate Colleen Slemmer.

Yesterday, her lawyers said she was conscious and speaking as she receives treatment in hospital.

Speaking on RTÉ's Today with David McCullagh, Dr Joel Zivot said: "Her punishment has not been carried out. This was an attempt, and it does not exonerate her, the fact that this failed."

"But it's clear that the more that she improves, the more likely she is to be subjected to execution in the future. That'll be up to the lawyers to debate as to what will happen. But there's nothing automatically that excludes the state from trying again," explained Dr Zivot.

Dr Zivot said the intention is to help Pike recover and added that her condition had "greatly improved" since she was first taken to the hospital. As of yesterday, she was able to be removed from a mechanical ventilator and she was speaking.

"She knew who she was and with some information where she was. She didn't get the month right and she didn't really remember her execution [attempt], but she did remember at least being in the hospital and being intubated and that's where she stands," Dr Zivot said.

He said he remains concerned, however, that there is a potential for brain damage.

"When she was first admitted, it was unclear why she was so deeply unresponsive that she required to be intubated. Was it the pentobarbital itself? Was it low oxygen to the brain? Was it some combination of the two? It's still a little bit unclear, honestly," he said.

Dr Zivot said it seemed both IVs that were placed by the execution team appear to have failed.

"One thing that I did learn is that Christa Pike actually has a blood clot in one of her arms... a blood clot would be one reason that perhaps is why the IV would not function.

"She's actually being treated for a blood clot now, and her arms are both quite severely injured and that will be a long recovery for certain," he said.

There had been speculation that the pentobarbital may have degraded, and may not have been as potent as it normally would be. Dr Zivot said that is still uncertain.

"The way that pentobarbital is prepared and handled by the state is secret, so I know that there is a desire to try to preserve these sorts of necessary elements that were involved in this attempted execution," he said.

Dr Zivot said it was unclear what will happen to Pike in the future if she makes a recovery.

"It's very tricky and nuanced. From the medical perspective, our duty is to take our patients and try to improve their health to the best that we can, guided by them, so a patient with autonomy can accept or reject any medical care. Where Christa Pike falls upon this, I don't know.

"We know that there's an ethical violation of directing care to a person for the purpose of making them fit for punishment and the difference is what you intend and what you foresee. So the intention here, of course, is to help Christa recover her medical state as much as possible," he added.

Pike's case has drawn international attention, with a group of United Nations human rights experts issuing a recent statement calling for commutation of her death sentence.

Pike was 18 in January 1995 when she, a 17-year-old boyfriend and a third companion lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a classmate at their Knoxville Job Corps vocational centre, into a wooded area where they tortured and killed her.

The grisly nature of the slaying drew intense media coverage ⁠at the time.

Trial testimony indicated that Pike viewed Ms Slemmer as a rival for the affections of her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp.

Pike and Shipp confessed to the killing, and both were convicted the following year of first-degree murder.

Pike was sentenced to death, while Shipp, who was 17 at the time of the killing, received a life sentence with the possibility of parole.

Their co-defendant, Shadolla Peterson, who was 18 at the time of the murder and had acted as a lookout for the other two, appeared as a witness for the prosecution and received probation.