Death Row Inmate Unconscious on Ventilator After Botched Execution

A Tennessee death row prisoner remained unconscious and on a ventilator Friday, days after the state’s attempt to execute her failed. Her attorneys say prison officials disregarded months of warnings that the lethal injection could result in a medical catastrophe.

Christa Pike was scheduled to die for the 1995 torture and killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. If carried out, the execution would have made Pike the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than two centuries. Instead, the attempt broke down Wednesday night.

Pike’s lawyers filed an emergency motion in Davidson County Chancery Court asking a judge to order the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve evidence from what they called a “botched attempted execution.”

The attorneys said the records are essential to establishing what occurred, safeguarding Pike’s legal claims and determining who should be held accountable.

“Christa remains critically ill and is receiving medical care for the devastating effects of Wednesday night’s events,” attorneys Stephen Ferrell and Luke Ihnen said in a statement Friday. “As detailed in today’s filing, Christa remains hospitalized following Wednesday night’s failed execution attempt.”

“She is critically ill, unconscious, intubated and receiving breathing assistance through a ventilator,” they said. “She is being treated for the serious effects of the pentobarbital administered during the execution attempt, including significant injuries to both arms.”

The emergency filing offers a detailed account of the events Pike’s attorneys say unfolded inside the execution chamber.

According to the motion, the execution team had difficulty securing intravenous access and used at least seven needles before administering two lethal doses of pentobarbital.

The filing says Pike directed staff toward possible injection sites. One needle allegedly came out bent at a 90-degree angle, while Pike could be heard crying, whimpering and breathing heavily throughout the procedure.

At one point, Pike reportedly told the execution team, “My arm feels like it’s about to burst open.” She later asked, “Does this happen like that?”

The motion says Pike was taken to a hospital with both arms “swollen, burned, and blistered.” It cites medical experts who have compared pentobarbital to “bleach” or “Drano,” describing the drug as highly caustic and capable of damaging skin, tissue and veins.

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Pike’s lawyers argue the problems encountered during the execution should have been anticipated.

In the months before the scheduled execution, they warned state officials that Pike’s thrombocytosis, post-traumatic stress disorder, small veins and history of difficult needle placement could make it substantially harder to establish and maintain IV access. They also cautioned that improperly delivering pentobarbital could cause “serious illness, needless suffering, and/or prolonged or lingering death.”

“Her concerns were called ‘speculation’; they were laughed off, scoffed at, and dismissed,” the motion says. “In the words of one media witness: we have a lot of questions and the Department of Correction has a lot of answers that it needs to provide to the public about what happened here. We agree.”

The attorneys also allege that members of the execution team failed to realize Pike’s IV lines had stopped functioning before giving her another dose of pentobarbital.

“Apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown and that the pentobarbital was, in whole or in part, entering Ms. Pike’s body,” the motion states. “Instead of remedying this failure, TDOC elected to prepare a backup set of syringes (if they were not also prepared earlier that day) and then administered another lethal dose of pentobarbital.”

Pike’s attorneys say preserving records, medical evidence and other materials from the failed execution is now crucial as legal proceedings continue.

“In light of the manifest violation of Ms. Pike’s constitutional rights, the actionable nature of that violation, and the reasonable foreseeability of litigation, the Defendants have an affirmative duty to preserve all relevant physical, written, and electronic evidence,” the motion states.

News Media reached out to the Tennessee Department of Correction and the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office for comment.

“The Governor has appropriately called for an investigation. We need to know what happened,” a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office said.