Christa Pike conscious and speaking after failed Tennessee execution
Christa Pike is conscious and speaking after surviving an attempt to execute her by lethal injection in Tennessee, her lawyers said. She continues to receive critical medical care, and her prognosis is unclear.
In a statement Tuesday, her legal team said Pike suffered severe damage to her arms during the execution attempt and is still handcuffed and shackled to her hospital bed.
“Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery,” the attorneys said. “We are incredibly grateful to the first responders and the medical team at the hospital who treated Christa like a human and have provided exceptional care to her.”
The execution attempt took place last Wednesday evening at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. Pike continued showing signs of life after receiving two rounds of pentobarbital and was eventually taken to a hospital.
Attorney Randy Spivey said the execution team spent an hour trying to establish an IV line. He counted at least seven needles used in her left arm alone and said her right arm turned purple, particularly after the second round of drugs.
Her lawyers said medical experts had warned the state that Pike’s blood disorder would make accessing her veins difficult. Media witnesses described her coughing, moving on the gurney and complaining that her arm felt as though it was about to burst.
The legal team called her recovery “medically unprecedented” and said she is the only person known to have survived a complete execution attempt in the United States.
Governor Bill Lee announced last week that he had ordered a comprehensive, independent review of what happened. He also said the remaining execution scheduled for this year would not take place.
Pike’s attorneys renewed their request Tuesday for Lee to commute her sentence to life in prison without parole. They said she had survived multiple rapes during childhood and nearly 30 years of solitary confinement, followed by increasingly restrictive confinement before the execution attempt.
“Christa is a survivor and will take recovery one day at a time,” they said.
The statement was issued by Randy Spivey and Kelly Gleason of the Tennessee Office of the Post Conviction Defender, and Stephen Ferrell and Luke Ihnen of Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee.
Pike, 50, was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Pike and her boyfriend lured Slemmer into the woods, where she was beaten and slashed before Pike crushed her skull with a piece of asphalt.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
