Christa Pike told medical personnel that her arm felt as though it might “burst open” and questioned whether something had gone wrong as Tennessee officials carried out her failed execution, according to her attorneys in a court filing Friday.
Pike, 50, is on death row for the 1995 murder of her Job Corps classmate. She remains unconscious and on a ventilator after receiving two doses of pentobarbital during Wednesday’s botched lethal injection. Experts cited in court documents describe the drug as a highly corrosive substance comparable to “bleach” or “Drano.”
According to the filing, medical staff made at least seven attempts to insert a needle before locating a vein. One of the needles was reportedly removed bent at a 90-degree angle.
During the execution at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Pike said, “My arm feels like it’s about to burst open,” her lawyers stated.
She then asked the all-female execution team, “Does this happen like that?”
Her attorneys said witnesses heard Pike crying and struggling to breathe throughout the procedure.
Experts retained by Pike’s legal team say pentobarbital is a caustic, highly alkaline chemical capable of damaging flesh, tissue and veins on contact—an effect they compared with common household products such as bleach and drain cleaner.
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Court documents say Pike was taken to a Nashville hospital with both arms swollen, blistered and suffering severe burns.
Pike is believed to be the only person known to have survived a lethal injection after the execution drugs entered the bloodstream.
She has remained in critical condition since the failed execution. Her attorney, Randy Spivey, said she likely sustained permanent brain damage.
Pike was 18 in January 1995 when she killed her 19-year-old Job Corps classmate, Colleen Slemmer. According to Pike’s confession, she attacked Slemmer out of jealousy after believing her classmate was trying to take her boyfriend.
Pike, her 17-year-old boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and their 18-year-old friend Shadolla Peterson lured Slemmer to a secluded area of the University of Tennessee’s Knoxville campus, where they tortured and killed her.
Pike ultimately killed Slemmer by striking her in the head with a piece of asphalt. She later kept part of the victim’s skull as a souvenir, according to case records. Pike was sentenced to death in 1996.
Shipp was sentenced to life in prison because he was a minor at the time. Peterson, who testified against Pike and Shipp, received probation after pleading a lesser role as an accessory.
