Christa Pike conscious and speaking after failed Tennessee execution
publishers 80articles 105first reported 1 Oct, 08:09 UTCdeveloping since 1 Oct · 20 editionstop 25 #21
Christa Pike is conscious and speaking in a Nashville hospital one week after surviving Tennessee’s attempt to execute her by lethal injection, her lawyers said Tuesday. She remains in critical care, and her prognosis is unclear.
Pike, 50, received two doses of pentobarbital on September 30 during an execution for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of her 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer. Her attorneys said Pike suffered severe burns and blistering to her arms and remains handcuffed and shackled to her hospital bed. She had previously been unconscious and on a ventilator.
Her lawyers allege that improperly placed intravenous lines or blown veins caused some or all of the drug to enter surrounding tissue rather than her bloodstream. Medical experts have cautioned that determining the extent of her recovery could take weeks or months.
The attorneys are due in Davidson County Chancery Court on Wednesday to seek an order preserving evidence from the attempted execution, including syringes, intravenous equipment, drug packaging, lot numbers and execution records. Tennessee officials said a separate order is unnecessary because the state is already required to preserve the evidence and has taken steps to investigate what happened.
Gov. Bill Lee called the incident deeply disturbing and ordered a comprehensive third-party review. He also postponed Tennessee’s remaining execution scheduled for 2026.
Pike is believed to be the first person in the modern U.S. death-penalty era to survive after execution drugs were administered.
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 8 articles, 6 with the publisher's own text; 8 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 146 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
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- Source articles
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- Given to the writer
- 8, 6 with the article's own text
- Independent newsrooms
- 8
- This version written
- 146 h after the record first saw the story
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