MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
For more on this, we've called Randy Spivey. He is one of Christa Pike's lawyers and works at the Tennessee Office of the Post-Conviction Defender. That's the agency that represents inmates on death row. He's on the line with us from Nashville. Mr. Spivey, welcome. Thank you for joining us.
RANDY SPIVEY: You're welcome.
MARTIN: Is there anything you can tell us about Christa Pike's current medical condition? How is she?
SPIVEY: Well, we don't we don't know a lot yet. I think today is a pretty important day. It's my understanding that doctors are dealing with the poisonous chemicals that were put into her body and trying to see if we can get past that, to see if there are any lasting effects and what those effects might be. At this point, we don't know a whole lot, but we hope to know more soon.
MARTIN: Has she regained consciousness?
SPIVEY: Not that I'm aware of.
MARTIN: You were a witness to the execution attempt. Would you mind telling us, as briefly as you can, what you saw?
SPIVEY: Yeah. And it was pretty awful, from the long wait of the day to when they began to try to find a line on Christa's arms for the IV to put the drugs in. It took almost an hour. The - they used at least seven needles on her left arm that I could see. One of the needles looked like it came back bent when they pulled it out. And then they thought they had established the two lines, I guess. And the execution began, and the two doses were administered. And it's very strange to sit there and see Christa helping the IV team to where she thought they could find the best line. She was at peace. She was ready to die. She was polite and helpful and was trying to bless people as it was all happening.
But then there was a moment where you realized something wasn't going right - that she was still breathing. And I think people will - may term it as kind of a snoring sound. I thought it sounded like choking. And that went on for so long. And then, when you realized you were kind of outside of the protocol is when we started to reach out to outside counsel. And a phone should have been readily available for me, but it took about seven minutes and six locked doors to get to a phone to be able to call co-counsel to say that something had gone terribly wrong.
MARTIN: Wow. So as we just heard, Tennessee's governor has stayed executions for the rest of the year. Democrats in the Tennessee House are led by Representative John Ray Clemmons, who told us that this is the right move. We'll hear what he said.
JOHN RAY CLEMMONS: This reflects poorly on the state of Tennessee and its people. And it's truly embarrassing that we are even addressing a circumstance like this in this day and age.
MARTIN: So the governor's launching a third-party review into the execution protocols, and it's my understanding there was already a review. Do you think that the - do you have any faith in this outcome?
SPIVEY: Well, I think stopping the executions for the rest of the year and a review is important. You are right that there was a review a couple of years ago, and the report that came out of that review was substantial. But the result that came out of that review was a new protocol that seemed to be more vague than the first, with fewer safeguards. And so we have concerns, obviously, about all of that and what that might look at. But stopping and looking at this again is really important because it - the - yesterday was not just inefficient. And, yes, it - and, like, I don't - TDOC, the Department of Corrections, says they followed the protocol. That may be, but if they did, something's wrong with the protocol as well.
MARTIN: So before we let you go - we just have a couple of seconds left here - as we just heard, you're looking to get Christa Pike's sentence commuted. I'm sure you're aware that there are many people who don't have any sympathy for someone convicted of murder and do not care that she experienced what another of her lawyers called torture. Would you just explain why you feel that this matters, even if you might feel that way?
SPIVEY: Yeah. This is not about whether Christa has been punished or punished enough. She was held in solitary confinement for 20 years - endured a full attempt at execution. She has endured more than severe punishment than anyone in the history of the American death penalty. This is not about punishment. It's about torture, and we should all care about whether we're willing to torture someone. And it's not just Christa. Like, her main concern throughout the day as it dragged on and on was the effect this was having on the victim's family. And my heart is broken for them. And what they went through on Wednesday, I'm sure, was excruciating. Everyone was tortured on Wednesday, and that should never happen again.
MARTIN: That's Randy Spivey. He's with the Tennessee Office of the Post-Conviction Defender. He's one of Christa Pike's lawyers. Mr. Spivey, thank you.
SPIVEY: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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