Death row inmate Christa Pike is reportedly awake and able to talk nearly a week after her unsuccessful execution in Tennessee, according to her legal team.
Pike, who is now 50, was convicted of first-degree murder for the brutal killing of a classmate back in 1995. Last Wednesday, she was administered two doses of the drug pentobarbital but, surprisingly, managed to survive the procedure “against all odds.”
“Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care,” her attorneys stated on Tuesday. “Her recovery is medically unprecedented. Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery.”
The attorneys emphasized that Pike is the only individual known to have survived a complete execution attempt in the U.S. They noted, “She survived two complete rounds of lethal injection per Tennessee’s protocol, despite our warnings about her veins.” They continue to advocate for the Governor of Tennessee to change Pike’s death sentence to life in prison without parole.
In a recent court filing, her lawyers claimed that complications with the IV lines during the attempted execution resulted in the barbiturate entering her body improperly, leading to “severe damage” to her arms. Currently, she remains “handcuffed and shackled” to her hospital bed.
This update on Pike’s condition was released following Governor Bill Lee’s decision to halt the state’s remaining executions for this year in light of the failed lethal injection.
Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville, Tennessee, making her one of the youngest women on death row in the U.S. At just 18, Pike and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, tortured and attacked Slemmer with a box cutter.
During the 30 to 60-minute assault, a pentagram was carved into Slemmer’s chest. Shipp testified that he did this because he “felt like it.” Both of them had a fascination with Satanism and the occult at the time.
When authorities investigated after the murder, they discovered a Satanic Bible, occult literature, and a makeshift altar in their rooms. After the attack, Pike even took a piece of Slemmer’s skull as a souvenir, keeping it in her jacket pocket and showing it to her classmates.
