Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Nick Harper: US Correspondent on Christa Pike's lawyers asking for evidence from the botched execution to be preserved

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Nick Harper: US Correspondent on Christa Pike's lawyers asking for evidence from the botched execution to be preserved · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: We go to America right now. The developing story right
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  Speaker 1: now is Krista Pike and her lawyers have asked the
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  Speaker 1: court to preserve evidence after a botched execution.
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  Speaker 2: We've argued that both requirements of the transfer statute aren't met.
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  Speaker 2: I think the case that was closed on the Chancery
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  Speaker 2: Court docket. administratively could certainly be reopened under your equitable powers.
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  Speaker 2: And then I think we can look at Rule 60.02.5.
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  Speaker 1: So joining us to fill in more of the details,
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  Speaker 1: Nick Harper from the United States. Good morning to you, Nick.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning, Andrew.
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  Speaker 1: So what's happening?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, this hearing underway, the lawyers trying to get that
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  Speaker 3: court order to preserve the evidence. They say that essentially,
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  Speaker 3: as we know, it was a botched execution of But
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  Speaker 3: they say that it was done in a very bad way.
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  Speaker 3: There were problems around the IV lines that were meant
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  Speaker 3: to be administering the drugs into Krista Pike's system. They
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  Speaker 3: say that at least seven needles were used to try
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  Speaker 3: and get that into her system. One of those needles
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  Speaker 3: was even bent at a 90 degree angle. There's also
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  Speaker 3: some evidence suggesting that Krista Pike herself was advising the
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  Speaker 3: nurses who were there how best to get the needles in.
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  Speaker 3: into her arm. Of course, those were meant to be
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  Speaker 3: lethal injections that were not lethal. Two sets of injections
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  Speaker 3: given to her, both of them failing with her ending
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  Speaker 3: up in hospital. But we have heard in the last
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  Speaker 3: 24 hours that she is now awake and she is communicating.
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  Speaker 3: We may get more details from the lawyers at this hearing,
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  Speaker 3: but of course, she would have been the first woman
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  Speaker 3: to be executed in the state of Tennessee in 200 years,
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  Speaker 3: all because of the 1995 murder when she killed a
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  Speaker 3: school friend. with her then-boyfriend in what appeared to be
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  Speaker 3: a satanic ritual.
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  Speaker 1: So the question is, will the lawyers be successful in
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  Speaker 1: actually having a stay of that execution, or will Tennessee
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  Speaker 1: try again?
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  Speaker 3: Well, the likelihood is that they probably will try again.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, this is, of course, a death sentence that
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  Speaker 3: she was given, and she's in hospital, but at some
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  Speaker 3: point will be transferred back into a prison system, and
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  Speaker 3: probably the prosecution will be pushing for that death penalty
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  Speaker 3: to go ahead.
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  Speaker 1: All right, and I thank you so much. Nick Harper
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  Speaker 1: out of the United States.
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  Speaker 3: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 2:12
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