Christa Pike was conscious and speaking nearly a week after Tennessee’s failed Sept. 30 execution, a rare update in a case that left her hospitalized, initially on a ventilator and still under medical care. She survived being given two lethal doses of pentobarbital and remained handcuffed to her bed while doctors treated severe damage to her arms.
That is why Pike’s name is drawing attention now: her attorneys say her recovery is medically unprecedented, her prognosis remains unclear and they expect a long recovery at a minimum. Randy Spivey said Pike “could be heard crying, whimpering, and breathing loudly” during the execution attempt and later said her arm “feels like it's about to burst open.”
Pike is the lone woman on Tennessee’s death row, sentenced to death after the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Her lawyers also asked Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to commute her sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole and filed an emergency motion in Davidson County Chancery Court seeking preservation of evidence tied to the execution attempt.
The motion says at least seven needles were used to gain IV access and that one needle was bent in a 90-degree angle when removed. It describes pentobarbital as caustic and highly alkaline and says it burns on contact, while also alleging Pike’s arms were swollen, burned and blistered when she arrived at a Nashville-area hospital. Before the execution, she had raised concerns about thrombocytosis, post traumatic stress disorder and small veins, saying they created a substantial risk of unnecessary pain and suffering.
Her lawyers say the wider record now has to answer two questions at once: whether Pike can fully recover from injuries they describe as extraordinary, and what Tennessee will do after a botched execution that led Bill Lee to order a temporary halt to scheduled executions and prompted the resignation of Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada. A Wednesday status conference was scheduled, and former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton was appointed to conduct an independent review of the Tennessee Department of Correction.
