Christa Pike Awakens After Surviving Two-Dose Tennessee Execution Attempt
publishers 123articles 152first reported 26 Sep, 23:04 UTCdeveloping since 27 Sep · 19 editions
Christa Pike was awake and speaking in a hospital this week after surviving Tennessee’s attempt to execute her with two doses of pentobarbital on Sept. 30, according to her attorneys.
Pike, 50, had spent about 30 years on death row after being convicted of murdering Colleen Slemmer. She was taken to a hospital and placed on life support after neither dose killed her. A court filing described her as unconscious and intubated, while her attorneys said her arms were swollen, burned and blistered following the failed lethal injection.
Attorney Randy Spivey said Pike’s legal team was told Monday that she had been declared brain dead and that life support would be withdrawn the following day. Instead, he said, Pike woke Tuesday morning and began talking, surprising her lawyers and medical team. Her attorneys are seeking more information about what went wrong during the execution attempt.
The case was cited in last-minute efforts to stop the Oct. 7 execution of Texas prisoner Jamaal Howard, whose lawyers raised concerns about pentobarbital. Texas courts and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene. Howard was pronounced dead 19 minutes after the drug was administered, becoming the first person executed in the United States since the attempt to execute Pike.
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 8 articles, 3 with the publisher's own text; 8 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 180 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
- Publishers
- 123
- Source articles
- 152
- Given to the writer
- 8, 3 with the article's own text
- Independent newsrooms
- 8
- This version written
- 180 h after the record first saw the story
- Second model (editor)
- kept as written
- Publication gate
- passed
- Human review
- none
WHAT THE EDITOR DID
The second model checked the writer's draft against the same sources and published it as written.
Written by a language model from the sources above, then checked by a second model that may only cut, attribute or correct. How it works →