সাম্প্রতিক ঘটনার আলোকে একটি বিশ্লেষণধর্মী প্রতিবেদন:
• Happening now: A hearing is underway as attorneys for Christa Pike, the Tennessee inmate who survived an execution attempt, seek a court order to ensure the preservation of evidence in her botched execution.
• Pike’s condition: Pike is conscious and speaking one week after the failed execution, the attorneys say. After surviving two ostensibly lethal doses of pentobarbital, she was transferred to a hospital and received lifesaving medical care.
• What to know: Pike, who was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, was to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years.
Attorneys for Christa Pike are asking Judge I’Ashea Myles for “continuous liberal access” to her, noting Pike currently has no way to contact her attorneys.
“TDOC (the Tennessee Department of Correction) continues to put up roadblocks, for not only the providers at the hospital, but for counsel, and so we would ask for an order granting continuous liberal access to Ms. Pike,” attorney Luke Ihnen said.
Before her attempted execution, Ihnen told Judge Myles, Pike had access to a tablet with which she could contact friends, family and attorneys.
Ihnen also requested that TDOC notify them before Pike is transferred from the hospital she is currently at and that she no longer he shackled to her hospital bed.
“Based on our understanding, medical staff have asked that the shackles be removed and have been denied that request by TDOC,” the attorney said.
Judge I’Ashea Myles pressed the state attorney on the emergency circumstances of today’s hearing as he argued the petitioners in the case have not requested discovery.
“We are here improvidently at this point in time,” Myles said. “And so, is it really fair to say to the petitioner, ‘Well, you haven’t moved on your underlying action’ when the petitioner was focused on what – I don’t want to put words in her mouth – but there was something that was more pressing than discovery in an underlying case.”
Myles continued, “So, can you really stand before the court and say, ‘Well, the petitioner hasn’t asked for any discovery’?”
The state’s attorney responded, “The state’s position is, as stated in our briefing, that discovery is governed by the rules of civil procedure, and those rules must be followed.”
Christa Pike regained consciousness yesterday, her attorney Luke Ihnen said in court, and has been unable to communicate with her legal team since her botched execution.
“Part of the issue that we are facing is up until yesterday, our client was unconscious, unable to communicate with counsel, unable to communicate with her medical providers, and without her consent, we are not able to to bring a new lawsuit,” Ihnen said.
“And so, Ms. Pike, as it’s been widely reported, regained consciousness yesterday and is speaking limitedly, and so you know obviously I think the original complaint stands, but you know we are not – we have not been authorized by our client to pursue a new cause of action.”
In January, Pike’s lawyers filed a complaint in the Davidson County Chancery Court challenging execution methods. That complaint was transferred to the state’s Supreme Court, where it was dismissed over procedural issues.
Ihnen said Pike’s lawyers haven’t been able to discuss with her the possibility of refiling a similar complaint or other possible legal next steps.
Today’s hearing is specifically over a narrow emergency motion from Pike’s legal team to preserve state records related to her execution.
The Davidson County Chancery Court, after hearing arguments, decided it retained jurisdiction in the procedural posture of the case after Christa Pike’s botched execution attempt.
Pike’s attorneys argued that the court should take up the case, saying the case has drawn notable “because of the extraordinary circumstances surrounding that motion for preservation of evidence.”
Remember: Pike’s lawyers filed an emergency motion Friday to ensure the preservation of evidence, alleging the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) inflicted “a cruel and unusual punishment” on Pike “through its deliberate indifference to her basic medical needs and reckless disregard of basic medical practices and their own lethal injection protocol.”
“We believe that the court retains jurisdiction,” Luke Ihnen, a member of Pike’s defense team, told Judge I’Ashea Myles in court today.
The state has asked the court to deny an emergency motion, arguing (TDOC) “is already bound to preserve the targeted evidence under a federal district court’s longstanding preservation order.”
Judge I’Ashea Myles began the hearing by calling Luke Ihnen, one of Christa Pike’s attorneys, to the lectern. All eyes in the courtroom are on Ihnen as he speaks with the judge about procedural issues in the case.
Dozens of media members are in the courtroom gallery, typing as the attorney speaks. The judge is looking back and forth between her computer and Ihnen.
The hearing is underway as attorneys for Christa Pike, the Tennessee inmate who survived an execution attempt, ask the court to preserve evidence related to her botched execution. The courtroom gallery is full with members of the press.
Pike is conscious and speaking one week after surviving two ostensibly lethal doses of pentobarbital, her attorneys said.
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer and was set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years.
During the execution procedure on Christa Pike, executioners struggled to place IV lines, causing the pentobarbital to flow into her body rather than her bloodstream, according to Pike’s attorneys.
Those administering the lethal injection attempted to gain IV access to Pike using “at least seven needles,” an emergency motion to ensure the preservation of evidence, filed Friday, says. “One needle was bent in a 90-degree angle when it was removed.”
Randy Spivey, one of Pike’s lawyers, told reporters she was cooperating with the execution team and even communicating where they should try to insert the IV lines.
Pike’s attorneys had previously warned the state of her history of difficulties with finding vein access. The execution team spent an hour trying to establish an IV line.
When Pike arrived at the Nashville-area hospital following the botched execution, her attorneys said in the motion, her arms were “swollen, burned, and blistered.” Pentobarbital “burns upon contact, including skin, tissue, and veins,” they said.
Attorneys for Christa Pike will hold a news conference after today’s hearing, where they plan to seek a court order to preserve evidence related to what they describe as her botched execution.
Attorneys Luke Ihnen of Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee and Randy Spivey of the Tennessee Office of the Post-Conviction Defender are expected to provide an update on Pike’s condition.
Tennessee’s lethal injection execution protocol, which the Tennessee Department of Correction said it acted according to throughout Christa Pike’s failed execution, is laid out in a 44-page document created by the Department of Correction, according to a copy obtained by the Death Penalty Information Center.
The step-by-step protocol is used to “ensure the humane and constitutional execution of inmates sentenced to death” and prohibits officials from straying from the procedure.
“There will be no deviation from the Protocol except by order of the Commissioner,” the protocol states.
The protocol approves only a one-drug method of lethal injection, specifically pentobarbital, a barbiturate that can cause death. The protocol states 100 ml of a 50 mg/ml solution of pentobarbital (a total of 5 grams) shall be checked to verify its contents and expiration dates 30 days before a scheduled execution.
The document lays out procedures leading up to, during and after the execution. Personnel prepare the primary 100 ml dose of pentobarbital solution in syringes, as well as a backup set “if the inmate is not deceased,” the protocol states.
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