Tennessee Death Row Inmate Christa Pike Survives Failed Lethal Injection Execution Attempt
Quick Look
Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike, 50, remained unconscious and on a ventilator after a failed lethal injection execution attempt involving two doses of pentobarbital and multiple needle insertions, according to her lawyers' court filings seeking to preserve evidence and commute her sentence.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
Christa Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of Colleen Slemmer. Her lawyers have previously warned that her medical conditions, including thrombocytosis and small veins, posed a risk of unnecessary pain during lethal injection.
Warning: This article contains details that readers may find distressing
Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike was unconscious, intubated and on a ventilator on Thursday night, after authorities failed to execute her by lethal injection, her lawyers say in court filings.
Pike, 50, was injected with two lethal doses of pentobarbital on Wednesday but remained alive. She was then sent to hospital in an ambulance.
Pike remained critically ill and was being treated at a hospital in Nashville, Tennessee.
Lawyers for Pike, who was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of Colleen Slemmer, are seeking to have her sentence commuted after the failed execution attempt.
Pike's lawyers filed an emergency motion on Friday to preserve "any and all evidence" related to her botched execution.
Hospital staff are working to save her life and clear the drug - pentobarbital - from her system, the filing states.
During the execution attempt, prison officials attempted to gain intravenous (IV) access by using at least seven needles on Pike, according to her lawyers.
At one point, Pike herself offered guidance of where they could try.
"One needle was bent in a 90-degree angle when it was removed," the filing states.
While receiving the two doses, "she could be heard crying, whimpering, and breathing loudly throughout the procedure", her lawyers said.
"At one point Ms. Pike stated 'my arm feels like it's about to burst open" and at another asked "'does this happen like that?'"
Pike's attorneys previously warned that her conditions, including thrombocytosis (a blood-clotting condition) and small veins meant there was a risk she would experience "unnecessary" pain and suffering during a lethal injection.
In the latest filings, her lawyers allege that "at no point did any member of the execution team realise that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown and that the pentobarbital was, in whole or in part, entering Ms Pike's body".
They are requesting that all relevant physical, written and electronic evidence is preserved.
What to Watch
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
Christa Pike's death sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment
Likely · Within months
An investigation will be launched into the Tennessee execution team's procedures
Very likely · Within weeks
Open Questions
- Will Christa Pike survive her current medical condition?
- What disciplinary actions will be taken against the execution team?
- Will her death sentence be commuted as a result of this incident?
- What specific evidence will be preserved from the execution attempt?
