Up to date Oct. 6, 2026, 5:35 p.m. ET
Tennessee demise row inmate Christa Pike is acutely aware and speaking within the hospital following her botched execution, her attorneys introduced on Oct. 6.
“In opposition to all odds, Christa Pike is acutely aware, talking, and continues to obtain crucial medical care,” her attorneys mentioned in an announcement. “Her restoration is medically unprecedented. Her prognosis stays unclear however, at a minimal, we count on a protracted restoration.”
They mentioned that regardless of “extreme injury” to Pike’s arms, “she is nonetheless handcuffed and shackled to the mattress.”
The attorneys expressed gratitude to the primary responders and medical staff “who handled Christa like human and have supplied distinctive care to her.” They added that additionally they wished to thank “1000’s from all around the world who despatched messages providing prayers and help for Christa. ”
‘She survived two full rounds of deadly injection per Tennessee’s protocol, regardless of her attorneys’ warning to the state of particular challenges with her veins,” they continued. “She is the one particular person identified to have survived a whole execution try within the U.S. Christa is a survivor and can take restoration sooner or later at a time.”
They continued to name on Tennessee Gov. Invoice Lee to Pike’s demise sentence to life imprisonment with out the potential for parole.”
The governor’s workplace has not responded to USA TODAY’s request for remark or questions on whether or not Lee will grant a commutation.
Tennessee was presupposed to execute Pike, 50, by deadly injection on Sept. 30 for the brutal and extended 1995 homicide of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. The execution failed after Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital injections and was taken to a Nashville-area hospital.
A timeline of the chaos within the demise chamber compiled by USA TODAY reveals that the state tried to kill Pike for over an hour earlier than speeding to save lots of her.
“We are going to by no means know precisely what bodily ache and what psychological ache she was going by means of, however that was her largest concern because the survivor of sexual abuse − that she could be pinned down, prodded, poked, reduce for a protracted time period,” one in every of Pike’s attorneys, Stephen Ferrell, instructed reporters the day after the botched execution. “That was merciless and weird punishment.”
The botched execution was the second within the state in 4 months and drew speedy criticism. Lee has ordered an impartial investigation into what occurred and known as off the one remaining execution within the state this 12 months. He additionally introduced the upcoming resignation of Division of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada, who oversaw the botched executions of Pike and Tony Carruthers in Might.
What occurred throughout Pike’s botched execution?
At 7:30 p.m. CT on Sept. 30, Pike’s would-be executioners administered the primary dose of pentobarbital, based on members of the information media who witnessed a part of what occurred.
“My arm feels prefer it’s about to burst open,” Pike mentioned at 7:34 p.m. CT, based on WKRN journalist and Tori Gessner.
Reporters mentioned Pike took many deep breaths, was loud night breathing and yawning at instances, and was transferring round for the following half hour. Sooner or later, confusion set in: “All of us checked out one another like, ‘She’s nonetheless alive,'” Gessner mentioned.
At 7:46 p.m., jail officers closed the curtains to the demise chamber and the media witnesses had been in the dead of night. They opened the curtains three minutes later, presumably after administering the second dose of pentobarbital. Reporters say she was variably loud night breathing, grunting and making choking sounds.
At 8:05 p.m., the state once more closed the curtains and left the journalists in the dead of night for about 50 extra minutes earlier than ordering them out. Quickly after they took Pike to a Nashville-area hospital.
On Oct. 2, Pike’s attorneys mentioned that she was unconscious, on a ventilator, and that her arms had been burned, blistered, and swollen. They mentioned that they hadn’t been allowed to go to her however that hospital workers had been working to save lots of her life and clear the pentobarbital from her system.
Her attorneys say they consider that Pike’s IV strains had been improperly positioned or that Pike’s veins had blown, inflicting some or the entire pentobarbital to enter her arm slightly than her bloodstream. They mentioned establishing intravenous entry for Pike took about an hour and required a number of makes an attempt.
The Demise Penalty Info Middle mentioned Pike seemed to be the primary particular person identified to have survived after execution medication entered her physique.
Pike’s botched execution started practically 10 hours after it was initially scheduled as a result of a federal appeals court docket granted her a last-minute keep of execution over arguments about Pike’s traumatic childhood, which included years of sexual assaults. The execution was capable of proceed after the U.S. Supreme Court docket overturned the keep in a 6-3 determination.
What was Christa Pike convicted of?
Pike was 18 when she and her 17-year-old boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, lured Colleen Slemmer into the woods in Knoxville on Jan. 12, 1995.
Prosecutors mentioned Pike and Shipp tortured and killed Slemmer, who was her romantic rival. Pike reduce Slemmer’s throat and crushed her cranium with a rock, later displaying off a bit of the cranium.
Though Pike was sentenced to demise, Shipp bought a sentence of life in jail as a result of he was 17 on the time of the crime and ineligible for the demise penalty.
Slemmer’s mom, Might Martinez, witnessed Pike’s failed execution. Martinez beforehand instructed Folks Journal that Pike had by no means apologized for her daughter’s demise and that she wished to lastly see justice.
Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime and courts reporter who covers the demise penalty, chilly instances and breaking information for USA TODAY. Observe her on X at @amandaleeusat.
