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Christa Pike scored a legal victory after a judge reopened her case against being put to death by lethal injection following her botched execution.
The convicted murderer, 50, was due to be the first woman put to death in Tennessee for over 200 years on Sept. 30 but instead became the country’s first death row inmate ever to survive the lethal injection.
In January, her legal team filed a complaint in court challenging the state’s lethal injection protocol, which was later dismissed by the Tennessee Supreme Court in May, according to court documents obtained by The Post.
In an order issued on Thursday, Judge I’Ashea Myles ruled that the case should be reopened in the Davidson County Chancery Court in Nashville.
Myles wrote that Pike had established “extreme, unique, exceptional, or extraordinary circumstances” allowing her to seek relief from the court.
The original complaint filed in January called for the court to stop the use of the lethal injection against Pike, arguing that in her case it was unconstitutional.
“Tennessee’s new lethal injection protocol, calling for a single drug (pentobarbital), is plagued with the same issues that have marked botched executions for decades: secrecy, intentional omission, inattention to detail, and untrained and unlicensed prison personnel attempting to fill medical role,” Pike’s lawyers wrote.
“As the State of Tennessee seeks to execute its first woman in 250 years, and the only woman on Tennessee’s death row ––- Christa Gail Pike –– those problems have come to head.
“The new protocol, as applied to the Plaintiff and her unique medical conditions, is unconstitutional under the United States Constitution and the Tennessee Constitution.”
The attorneys also argued that Pike’s “physical characteristics” –– including small veins –– made insertion with a needle difficult.
Pike was sentenced to death for the sadistic murder of her 19-year-old Job Corps classmate Colleen Slemmer in Jan. 1995, when she was 18.
In July, the Tennessee Supreme Court appointed a senior judge to review evidence regarding claims that her execution at the hands of an all-male execution was unconstitutional given her history of childhood rape and sexual violence.
The judge’s investigation found in August that Pike’s legal team had failed to prove she was at substantial risk of pain, serious illness or needless suffering, allowing her execution to go ahead.
Following what was the state’s second failed execution since May, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee paused all remaining capital punishment this year and ordered an independent review into what went wrong.
At a court hearing before Judge Myles on Wednesday, Tennessee Assistant Attorney General William Ayers replied “I can’t answer that question” when asked by the judge if the execution would be rescheduled.
Her legal team said Pike was given two doses of pentobarbital using at least 7 needles, one of which came out of her arm bent at a 90-degree angle.
The convicted killer remained unconscious and in a critical state and her lawyers said they were told Monday she was brain dead and would be taken off life support the following day.
In a stunning turn of events, Pike woke up on Tuesday and is now said to be talking and walking.
She is believed to be the first death row inmate ever to survive lethal injection in the US.
Pike suffered a blood clot in her arm, has pneumonia and cannot eat following her botched execution, her attorney Randy Spivey told a press conference Wednesday.
The Post aked the Tennessee Attorney General’s office and Pike’s attorneys for comment.
