Death-row inmate Christa Pike remains unconscious in a guarded hospital room after surviving a botched execution, according to her attorney, who warned that she may never make a full recovery.
Tennessee sentenced Pike to death in 1996, when she was 20, for the torture and murder of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer, the year before.
Pike spent roughly 30 years on death row as her execution was repeatedly postponed. It was ultimately scheduled for September 30.
Now 50, Pike was reportedly stuck with at least seven needles as medical personnel spent about two hours trying to administer two lethal doses of pentobarbital, according to witnesses and court documents.
The execution did not go as planned. Lawyers said Pike remained alive and could be heard crying, whimpering and breathing heavily during the procedure.
When members of the media were escorted from the viewing area at 8:53 p.m.—just over two hours after arriving at 6:41 p.m.—Pike could reportedly be heard snoring behind the closed curtains.
She was taken to a hospital unconscious, with swollen and blistered arms that lawyers said were linked to the injection attempt. Doctors intubated her and placed her on a ventilator. As of Sunday, she remained alive and unconscious, according to her legal team.
Attorney Stephen Ferrell told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday that Pike’s hospital room was guarded and that she “may not fully recover.”
Christa Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital during her September 30 execution in Tennessee. She remains unconscious in a guarded hospital room and may never recover.
Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 at age 20. She is shown crying during her sentencing hearing.
Pike’s victim, classmate Colleen Slemmer, is pictured as a child. Pike tortured Slemmer for up to an hour before killing her.
Pike’s attorney, Stephen Ferrell, told CNN’s Jake Tapper that his client “may not fully recover” after the failed execution.
“I think one of the main things that will leave this up in the air for a while is the fact that we don’t know what the prognosis is, as in the long-term prognosis. If she recovers, she may not fully recover,” Ferrell said.
Ferrell said Pike had not regained consciousness or spoken since the failed execution, as far as he knew.
He also said he had not been permitted to enter Pike’s hospital room. Doctors, he added, may not know her prognosis for several more days.
Tennessee has not said whether it will make another attempt to execute Pike, Ferrell said.
The attorney said he had asked the governor to commute Pike’s death sentence to life in prison, citing the mental and physical suffering she endured before the execution as well as the complications during the procedure.
“We don’t know right now, and we may never know, what sort of torture she endured during that process,” Ferrell said.
During the attempted execution, Pike reportedly said, “My arm feels like it’s about to burst open.” At another point, she asked, “Does this happen like that?”
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The failed execution has triggered widespread scrutiny, including a reaction from President Donald Trump. The day after the attempt, Trump said: “How does that happen? Should be easy to do. It shouldn’t be very difficult.”
Pike’s botched execution became a scandal that even drew criticism from President Trump, who said: ‘It shouldn’t be very difficult’
The scandal also led Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada to announce that he is resigning and will step down later this month
Tennessee’s execution protocol does not outline what should be done if an inmate survives two lethal injection doses. The execution chamber where Pike was supposed to die is pictured
It also led Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada to announce he put in his resignation and will step down from the top role later this month.
Strada said it was a ‘great honor’ to serve in his position and that he still ‘believes the Department carried out its responsibilities in accordance with the established protocol.’
‘Even so, stepping aside is in the best interest of Tennesseans as the independent review moves forward,’ he said.
Pike’s attorneys have argued that the Department of Correction failed their client.
The lawyers said they believed problems with the IV lines caused the pentobarbital to flow into her body instead of her bloodstream.
‘Apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize 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,’ the lawyers wrote in a court filing.
They wrote that instead of ‘remedying this failure,’ they prepared and administered a backup set of pentobarbital syringes.
Her lawyers are seeking to have all of the evidence from her botched execution preserved so they can ensure accountability and protect her legal rights.
Pike’s attorneys said that the execution team failed to place the IVs into her veins, causing the lethal injection to enter her body rather than her bloodstream
Pike (pictured in 1996) carved a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest and took a piece of her caved-in skull after bludgeoning the young woman to death with a piece of asphalt
The court filing emphasized that Pike previously filed an appeal claiming her execution would result in cruel and unusual punishment because of her individual physical characteristics, including thrombocytosis, post-traumatic stress disorder and small veins.
Tennessee’s execution protocol calls for a secondary set of drug syringes to be administered ‘if the inmate is not deceased’ after the first set. It does not spell out what happens if the subject is alive after the second set.
Governor Bill Lee has halted any additional executions for the year and ordered ‘a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.’
At the age of 18, Pike lured Colleen Slemmer to an isolated area of the University of Tennessee’s campus in January 1995 and, alongside her boyfriend and a friend, tortured Slemmer for up to an hour.
Slemmer was stabbed more than 100 times with a box cutter before Pike bludgeoned her to death with a piece of asphalt, carved a pentagram into her chest and took a piece of her caved-in skull as a sick souvenir.
