NASHVILLE, United States- Christa Pike is unconscious, intubated, and receiving help from a ventilator after Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute her by lethal injection, her lawyers say.
The 50-year-old remains in critical condition in the hospital, two days after officials administered two doses of pentobarbital but failed to kill her.
Her attorneys said hospital staff are working to save her life and remove the drug from her system.
Lawyers allege IV lines were misplaced
In an emergency court filing seeking to preserve evidence from Wednesday’s execution attempt, Pike’s lawyers said the execution team did not realise that the intravenous lines were misplaced or that veins had “blown.”
They alleged that some or all of the pentobarbital entered tissue rather than her veins.
Her lawyers had warned before the execution that Pike’s medical history could make it difficult to establish IV access.
During the attempt, attorney Randy Spivey said he counted at least seven needles used in Pike’s left arm as the team tried to place a line.
Tennessee officials have said prison staff followed the state’s established execution protocol.
Governor Bill Lee has ordered an independent review and halted the remaining executions scheduled in the state for 2026.
Pike was sentenced to death for 1995 murder
Pike was convicted of killing her 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in 1995, when Pike was 18.
She was scheduled to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
The execution attempt was stopped after Pike survived both doses of the drug.
Her lawyers are now seeking to have her death sentence commuted, while the state’s review examines what went wrong.
Court records say Pike had told another student the day before that she intended to kill Slemmer; Pike and Shipp later lured Slemmer away from the centre and attacked her.
A Tennessee jury convicted Pike of first-degree murder and sentenced her to death in 1996.
Prosecutors said Pike killed Colleen Slemmer because she was jealous and believed Slemmer was interested in her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp.
Court records also say Pike told a fellow student the day before the killing that she planned to kill Slemmer because she “just felt mean that day.”
Amnesty International USA has called for the abolition of the death penalty after a Tennessee woman survived two doses of a lethal injection drug during an execution attempt, according to her lawyers.
The human rights organisation condemned the attempted execution of Christa Pike, describing it as evidence of the cruelty of capital punishment.
“Tennessee’s botched attempt to execute Christa Pike, as witnessed by her attorneys, demonstrates why the death penalty truly is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment,” Amnesty said.
“All execution methods are inhumane and unacceptable. The death penalty must be abolished, everywhere.”
