Christa Pike, who survived Tennessee lethal injection, describes ongoing pain a month on

Mixed · 2Christa Pike, 50, the only woman on Tennessee's death row, said in her first public statement since a failed execution that there has not been a moment since 30 September when she has not been in pain. 1 2 Mixed · 2She described her body, arms, hands and throat as hurting, said she still struggles to speak, and said the pain is also "in my mind and in my soul". 2 3 Mixed · 2Pike survived two doses of the drug pentobarbital on 30 September and is described as the first known person to survive a lethal injection after the drugs were administered. 1 4

Left · 2She was put on a ventilator, regained consciousness days later, and was discharged from hospital on 10 October and returned to prison. 1 5 Left · 1The Guardian reports that Pike was injected with a full 5g of pentobarbital and that the execution team spent almost an hour trying to establish an intravenous line; medical experts told the paper they were shocked by the apparent incompetence described in her lawyer's account. 6 Right · 1The Daily Mail reports that her arms were swollen, burned and blistered when she reached hospital, that her attorneys compared the damage to exposure to bleach or Drano, and that they believe faulty IV lines sent the drug into the tissue of her arms rather than her bloodstream. 7

Left · 1Her lawyer Randy Spivey wrote in a court filing that the execution team failed repeatedly to establish working IV lines, used about 10 needles across both arms and struggled to push saline through the last site; the Mirror says the team began trying to place IVs at 6.34pm and she reached hospital about 9.11pm after an initial delay from emergency services. 5 Mixed · 2Pike said she walked into the chamber at peace and prepared to die, told witnesses she was leaving them in "loving kindness", and is "deeply hurt by the incompetence that has put so many people in this terrible position". 8 4 Left · 1She said she has been largely isolated in the prison medical ward, compared it to her 28 years in solitary confinement, thanked first responders, medical staff and supporters, and said: "I don't know why I survived that night. I don't know what comes next." 5

Mixed · 2She was convicted of the 1995 killing of Colleen Slemmer, 19, a classmate in a Job Corps programme in Knoxville; Pike does not deny her part, but her lawyers say her age (18) and a childhood of abuse and neglect were not fully presented to the jury. 1 4 Mixed · 2ABC News (Australia) describes her as one of the youngest women ever sentenced to death, and Just the News says the case drew national attention partly because of the pentagram, during the "satanic panic" era. 9 10 Right · 2Fox News and the Daily Mail give the crime's details: Pike's then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, 17 at the time, received life with the possibility of parole, Pike alone was sentenced to death in 1996, and the Fox report says a pentagram was carved into the victim's chest. 11 7

Right · 1Just the News, citing AP, says Pike's boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, 17 at the time, was ineligible for the death penalty and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, and that he admitted carving the pentagram; this differs from the Fox and Daily Mail accounts of life with the possibility of parole. 10 Left · 1Pike said she thinks of the victim's family; Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, has said Tennessee needs to "make this right" and not remove Pike from death row. 1 Left · 1The Tennessee Department of Correction said earlier it had followed the lawful protocol and that the drug had consistently been effective, and on Friday declined to comment; Gov. Bill Lee ordered an independent review, paused executions through year-end, and Correction Commissioner Frank Strada is leaving at the end of October. 1

Left · 1CBS News reports that Pike's was the second problem in Tennessee this year: Tony Carruthers could not be executed after team members spent more than an hour trying to establish an IV line, and the governor granted him a one-year reprieve; CBS also says its review of the state's lethal injection protocols back to 2007 found they grew "increasingly vague". 12 Left · 1CBS adds that a media witness said Pike could be heard loudly snoring about an hour after the procedure began, and cites a Reuters/Ipsos poll from earlier this month in which one-third of Americans back a second attempt to execute her. 12 Right · 2The Washington Examiner says Pike was set to be the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years, and AFP, carried by the Straits Times, says there have been 32 executions in the United States this year, all by lethal injection. 13 14

Centre · 1AFP, carried by Gulf News, cites the Death Penalty Information Center as saying Pike is the only inmate known to have survived being injected with lethal doses, and notes that 23 of 50 US states have abolished the death penalty and three more have moratoriums. 15 Left · 1Whether Tennessee will try again is unknown: Lee said "I suspect her sentence will be the same as before, unless determined otherwise by the courts"; a judge ordered the state to preserve evidence, and her lawyers expect a "long legal battle". 1 Right · 2Pike's attorneys have urged Lee to commute her sentence to life without parole; an assistant attorney general did not object to the preservation order, saying log books, observation logs, medical waste and ECG readouts had been saved. 11 7

Left · 1Al Jazeera adds that Pike's legal team has asked a federal judge to let her interact with other prisoners, saying her solitary confinement since the failed execution has caused "significant psychological harm and trauma"; Al Jazeera also names the drug as phenobarbital, where other outlets say pentobarbital. 16 Right · 1Just the News reports that Pike's attorneys said she woke with pneumonia and a blood clot, unable to swallow or move her arms or hands, and says Lee indicated she will likely face another attempt; this is a looser paraphrase than the quote carried by other outlets, in which he said he suspects her sentence will be the same unless the courts decide otherwise. 17 Left · 1NBC reports the gubernatorial candidates differ: Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn would resume executions, while Democrat Jerri Green would block any. 1

Right · 1GB News quotes Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, telling ABC that she broke down in tears on learning Pike survived, that the state owed her a "big apology", and that "All I wanted was justice." 18