Following the failed execution, a department spokesperson said it had “followed every step of the state-established, lawful execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office” and that “the lethal chemical injection contained in the protocol was always effective.”
Lee ordered an independent investigation to “determine exactly what happened” and said he would suspend all executions until the end of the year. He also announced that Corrections Commissioner Frank Strada would resign at the end of October. Strada said it was “in the best interest” of the state.
But it’s unclear whether the state will try to execute Pike again, and that underscores an ethical paradox of the death penalty: One must be considered sufficiently healthy before one can be put to death.
On Wednesday, Lee did not rule out the possibility of a second execution attempt: “I suspect his sentence will be the same as before,” he told reporters, “unless the courts decide otherwise.”
Lee, who will leave office in January, refused to commute Pike’s death sentence to life in prison. The Republican candidate to replace him next month, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, said she would resume executions if elected and supported expanding the methods available. Her Democratic opponent, Jerri Green, said she would block any executions as long as she was in power.
Pike’s lawyers said they expected a “lengthy legal battle” if Tennessee moves forward. This month, a judge sided with his defense team when it argued the state must preserve evidence related to the attempted execution, including syringes, intravenous lines, medications and personnel records.
At the time, state prosecutors said “no execution orders were pending” and that they had not heard of them.
The mother of Pike’s victim, May Martinez, said Tennessee needs to “make things right” and not remove Pike from death row. Martinez could not immediately be reached for comment.
In 1995, Pike and two others worked together to torture, slash and bludgeon to death Slemmer, a classmate from their Job Corps program in Knoxville. Investigators said Pike, then 18, viewed Slemmer as a romantic rival.
Pike does not deny his role in the brutal murder. But her lawyers say other factors, such as her age at the time and her upbringing marked by years of sexual and physical abuse and neglect, were not fully understood or shared with the jury that sentenced her to death.
In his statement, Pike said: “I continue to think about my victim’s family and the terrible pain and loss they have endured. »
She said she was also grateful to the first responders, doctors and nurses who “treated me with compassion, dignity and respect.”
Although she doesn’t know what her fate will be, she said she is “searching for meaning in what happened to me” as she became the first known person to survive a lethal injection after the drugs had already been administered.
“I don’t know why I survived that night,” she added. “I don’t know what’s next. Some days, finding hope is harder than others. For now, I’m trying to heal, one day at a time. And I’m clinging to the love and kindness of so many people who have reminded me that I’m not alone.”
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